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FROM  THE  LIBRARY  OF 
REV.   LOUIS    FITZGERALD    BENSON,  D.  D. 

BEQUEATHED   BY  HIM   TO 

THE  LIBRARY  OF 

PRINCETON  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 


1^ 


■V'- 


THE    LIFE  OF    GEORGE   MATHESON 

D.D.,  LL.D.,  F.R.S.E. 


SEP 

THE  LIFE  OF^' 


// 
•V 


'^(Jil^   [ 


GEORGE  MATHESON 

D.D.,  LL.D.,  F.R.S.E. 


BY 

D.    MACMILLAN,    M.A.,    D.D. 

MINISTER  OF   KELVINHAUGH   PARISH,   GLASGOW 


NEW   YORK 

A.    C.    ARMSTRONG    AND    SON 

3  &  .5  WEST  EIGHTEENTH  ST 

1907 


Printed  by 

Morrison  &  Gibb  Limited 

Edinburgh 


TO 

HIS    SISTER 
J.   G.   M. 


PREFACE 

I  DESIRE  to  express,  In  a  word,  my  Indebtedness  to 

the  many  friends  who  so  readily  responded  to  my 

appeal  for  help  in  the  preparation  of  this  volume. 

To    Miss    Matheson    in    particular    I    owe   much. 

She  unreservedly  placed  in  my  hands  the  Literary 

Remains  of  her  brother  and  all  the  materials  In  her 

possession  that   might  aid  me  in  my  work.     She 

gave  me,  besides,  much  information  regarding  his 

early  life,   and  cleared  up  many  points  of  doubt 

and  difficulty.     My  cordial  thanks  are  also  due  to 

the  Rev.  John  Anderson,  B.D.,  and  the  Rev.  W.  S. 

Provand,  M.A.,  for  revising  the  proofs  ;  to  the  Rev. 

R.  S.  V.   Logie,   M.A.,   for  preparing  the  index ; 

and    to    my    friend,     Dr.     William    Wallace,     for 

again  placing  his  invaluable  literary  experience  and 

judgment  at  my  service. 

D.  M. 

October  ii,  1907. 


VII 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER   I 

PAGB 

Early  Years        ......         i 

CHAPTER   II 
Student  Days      .  .  .  .  .  •       ^3 

CHAPTER   III 
Recess  Studies     .  .  .  .  .  -52 

CHAPTER   IV 

Probation  .  .  .  .  .  -To 

CHAPTER   V 
Matheson  of  Innellan  .  .  ,  .  •      ^7 


PACK 


X  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER   VI 
Authorship  .  .  .  .  .  .130 

CHAPTER   VII 
Devotion  and  Poetry    .  .  .  .  .166 

CHAPTER  VIII 

Last  Years  at  Innellan  .  .  .  .198 

CHAPTER   IX 
The  Edinburgh  Ministry  .  .  .  .220 

CHAPTER   X 

¥ 

Pastoral  and  Literary  .  .  .  -250 

CHAPTER   XI 
Dr.  Matheson  at  Home  ....     287 

CHAPTER   XII 
Last  Years  .  .  .  .  .  '314 

Index        .......     363 


CHAPTER  I 

EARLY  YEARS 

George  Matheson  was  born  in  Glasgow  on 
March  27,  1842.  The  Church  of  Scotland,  of 
which  he  was  to  be  so  distinguished  a  minister, 
was  on  the  eve  of  its  greatest  trial.  The  forces 
which  for  the  past  ten  years  had  been  concentrat- 
ing into  opposing  camps  were  now  almost  ready 
for  the  conflict  that  was  to  break  up  the  Church 
into  two  bodies.  A  year  after  his  birth  the 
Disruption  took  place.  His  parents  kept  by  the 
Church  of  their  fathers,  but  the  ecclesiastical 
division  and  strife  into  which  young  Matheson  was 
born  were  not  without  their  influence  on  him. 
They  touched  him,  however,  in  a  manner  greatly 
different  from  that  in  which  they  affected  most 
men.  In  place  of  embittering  they  would  seem  to 
have  sweetened  his  temper.  They  set  him  in  the 
ecclesiastical  sphere  the  problem  which  in  theology 
he  all  through  endeavoured  to  solve.  From  the 
very  first  the  question  faced  him  :  How  can  oppos- 
ing differences  be  reconciled?  In  the  realm  of 
religious  thought  he  did  his  best  by  his  writings  to 
I 


2  EARLY   YEARS 

answer  that  question  ;  and  though  he  took  no  part 
in  Church  poHtics,  his  catholicity  of  spirit  and 
practice  did  more  to  soften  the  acerbity  of  ecclesi- 
astical life,  and  to  bring  about  a  kindlier  feeling 
between  different  communions,  than  the  active  and 
well-meant  proposals  of  those  who  framed  definite 
schemes  of  union.  True  brotherhood  does  not 
depend  upon  outward  uniformity.  The  love  of  a 
common  ideal,  which  in  reality  is  the  true  bond  of 
perfectness  and  peace,  is  independent  of  all  external 
barriers.  It  treats  them  in  relation  to  Christian 
fellowship  as  non-existent. 

It  was  at  39  Abbotsford  Place,  on  the  south  side 
of  the  river  Clyde,  that  Matheson  was  born.  A 
walk  through  the  district  tells  of  its  former  glory. 
There  still  is  the  wide  street  with  its  blocks  of 
solid  masonry,  giving  the  houses  an  air  of  sub- 
stantiality which  time  has  not  destroyed  ;  but 
the  ever  extending  city  has  laid  its  hand  on  the 
once  fashionable  suburb,  and  by  its  smoke  and 
tread  of  busy  commerce  has  reduced  it  to  the  type 
of  an  artisan  quarter.  Its  roomy  dwellings  still 
command  tenants  who  prefer  comfort  to  external 
appearance,  but  the  rising  merchants  who  fifty  or 
sixty  years  ago  chose  it  as  a  quiet,  airy,  and 
genteel  locality,  have  long  since  migrated  far  beyond 
its  boundaries.  It  offered,  however,  a  sufficiently 
attractive  residence  for  Matheson's  parents  at  the 
beginning  of  their  married  life. 

George  Matheson,  the  father,  after  whom  his 
eldest  son   was    named,    was   a   fine   type  of  the 


EARLY   YEARS  3 

successful  Glasgow  merchant  of  two  generations 
ago ;  shrewd,  kindly,  and  God-fearing.  He  shared 
to  the  full  in  the    old   ideals  of  Scottish  religious 

o 

and  social  life,  which  wealth,  in  place  of  destroying, 
fed  and  fostered.  The  Church,  with  its  time- 
honoured  services  and  sanctities,  was  to  him  what 
it  had  been  to  his  fathers,  and  he  found  his 
recreation  in  the  kindly  ministries  with  which  it 
leavened  public  life.  The  old  beliefs  still  stood 
unshaken ;  and  Church  and  State  constituted  to 
him  a  time-honoured  union  on  which  the  prosperity 
of  the  country  depended.  His  personality,  after 
the  lapse  of  years,  stands  out  clear  and  strong. 
His  memory  is  fondly  cherished  by  the  remaining 
members  of  his  family,  and  by  many  who  knew  him 
through  the  intercourse  of  business  and  social  life. 
He  was  a  native  of  Dornoch.  When  quite  a 
lad  he  was  taken  to  Glasgow  to  be  educated  and 
launched  upon  his  career.  Dr.  Matheson  used  to 
refer  with  pride  to  his  Highland  ancestry,  and  he 
ever  regarded  this  happy  chance  in  his  father's  life 
as  the  making  of  their  fortunes.  Had  it  not  been 
for  his  father's  response  to  the  voice  which  called 
him  thither,  the  land  of  promise,  of  intellectual  and 
spiritual  conquest,  might  never  have  been  his. 

Dornoch  has  charms  of  its  own.  As  a  summer 
resort  it  is  full  of  attractions.  Its  golf  course  Is  of 
ancient  renown.  So  far  back  as  1630  Sir  Robert 
Gordon  wrote  of  it:  "About  this  toun,  alone  the 
seacoast,  there  are  the  fairest  and  largest  llnkes  or 
green  fields  of  any  part  of  Scotland,  fitt  for  archery. 


4  EARLY  YEARS 

goffing,  ryding,  and  all  other  exercise ;  they  doe 
surpasse  the  fields  of  Montrose  or  St.  Andrews." 
Professor  Blackie,  who  wandered  thither  in  1881, 
while  having  a  characteristic  fling  at  the  town  itself 
as  ''an  old-fashioned,  outlying,  outlandish,  grey 
nest,"  speaks  of  it  as  "  interesting,  with  a  splendid 
beach  for  sea-bathing,  a  fresh,  breezy,  and  dry 
atmosphere,  and  a  golfing  course  second  to  none  in 
Scotland."  It  offered  little  inducement,  however,  to 
ambitious  youth.  Cut  off  from  the  commercial  life 
of  the  country,  and  with  few  or  no  resources  in 
itself,  Dornoch  practically  compelled  its  sons  to 
look  elsewhere  for  success.  Still  it  gave  them 
what  the  more  populous  and  wealthy  centres  could 
not  bestow,  and  prepared  them  for  those  conquests 
which  were  in  store  for  many  of  them.  The  robust 
health,  the  latent  talent,  the  tireless  energy  and 
ceaseless  enterprise  of  the  Glasgow  merchant,  are  a 
heritage  from  ancestors  who  ran  on  the  ''braes"  of 
the  Scottish  Highlands  and  Lowlands.  They  were 
denied  the  opportunities  which  their  sons  enjoy. 
They  received  not  the  promise,  some  better  thing 
havine  been  reserved  for  those  In  whose  life  their 
own  is  perfected. 

The  elder  Matheson  on  coming  to  Glasgow 
looked,  to  begin  with,  to  the  ministry  as  his  future 
career.  This  was  natural.  To  country  lads  in 
his  day,  who  were  fired  by  youthful  ambition,  the 
Church  seemed  to  be  the  only  sphere  in  which 
their  talents  could  find  scope.  The  two  men  of 
importance  in  the   parish  were   the   laird  and  the 


EARLY  YEARS  5 

minister.  The  position  of  the  one  was  beyond 
them,  but  that  of  the  other  was  within  their  reach. 
The  intellectual  joys  of  such  a  calling  also  appealed 
to  them,  apart  altogether  from  the  spiritual  ideals 
in  which  its  true  significance  is  found.  Accordingly, 
on  leaving  school  he  entered  the  University  and 
became  a  proficient  Latin  scholar ;  but  his  career  as 
a  student  was  of  short  duration.  By  the  advice  of 
friends  his  course  was  diverted  into  business,  and 
after  a  time,  along  with  Mr.  William  Wilson,  after- 
wards so  well  known  as  the  genial  and  popular 
**  Bailie  Wilson  "  of  Glasgow,  he  started  the  firm  of 
Wilson  &  Matheson  in  Glassford  Street.  The 
business  prospered  exceedingly,  and  under  his 
second  son,  Mr.  John  Matheson,  as  its  head,  it 
still  continues  to  prove  successful.  Mr.  Matheson's 
early  enthusiasms  never  left  him.  If  he  was  not 
to  be  a  minister  of  the  Kirk,  he  at  any  rate  could  be 
an  office-bearer  in  it.  While  he  lived  at  Abbotsford 
Place  he  attended  St.  David's  Parish  Church  (the 
Ramshorn),  during  the  ministry  of  Dr.  Paton. 
When  he  removed  to  the  West  End  of  the  city  he 
became  one  of  the  first  promoters  of  Sandyford 
Church,  and  he  was  deputed,  along  with  a  few 
others,  to  hear  the  Rev.  Mr.  Macduff,  then  minister 
of  St.  Madoes  in  Perthshire,  who  became  the  first 
minister  of  Sandyford.  Mr.  Matheson  continued 
during  the  whole  of  Dr.  Macduffs  ministry  to  take 
the  deepest  interest  in  church  and  parish,  and  he 
proved  himself  a  loyal  supporter  and  friend.  Dr. 
Macduff  on  his  deathbed  dictated  a  letter  (March 


6  EARLY   YEARS 

1 8,  1895)  to  Dr.  Matheson,  in  which,  among 
other  references  quite  pathetic  in  their  nature,  he 
thus  recalls  his  old  office-bearer  and  friend  :  *'  My 
two  strongholds  in  Sandyford,  for  genial  kindness 
and  wise  direction,  were  that  dear,  great-hearted 
George  Matheson  of  Glassford  Street  and  James 
Ritchie." 

Dr.  Matheson's  parents  were  second-cousins. 
His  mother  was  the  eldest  daughter  of  Mr.  John 
Matheson  of  the  Fereneze  Print  Works,  Barrhead, 
and  her  brothers  were  Mr.  John  Matheson,  Junr., 
of  Messrs.  William  Stirling  &  Sons,  Turkey  Red 
Dyers  in  the  Vale  of  Leven,  and  Sir  Donald 
Matheson,  K.C.B.,  of  the  United  Turkey  Red  Co. 
Ltd.  She  came  of  a  talented  family.  Her  brother 
John  was  one  of  the  foremost  business  men  of 
his  day,  full  of  enterprise  and  energy.  He 
possessed  many  of  the  qualities  which  afterwards 
distinguished  his  brilliant  nephew.  Cultured  and 
versatile,  a  patron  of  art  and  literature,  specially 
fond  of  music,  a  capable  public  speaker,  and  an 
author  of  considerable  reputation,  his  sudden 
death  in  the  prime  of  life  was  a  distinct  loss  to 
his  native  city.  Sir  Donald  was  for  many  years 
the  head  of  the  volunteer  movement  in  the  West 
of  Scotland.  His  services  were  repeatedly  recog- 
nised, his  final  reward  being  a  knighthood  in  1887. 
The  outside  world  might  have  said  that  Mrs. 
Matheson's  special  gift  was  song.  Music  certainly 
was  the  art  she  cultivated  most ;  as  a  pianist  she 
was  striking  and  brilliant,  but  her  talent  was  many 


EARLY   YEARS  7 

sided  ;  and  If  It  was  from  his  father  Dr.  Matheson 
Inherited  that  sane  view  of  worldly  matters  and 
power  of  managing  business  affairs  which  frequently 
surprised  even  Intimate  friends,  it  was  certainly 
to  his  mother  he  was  indebted  for  his  gift  of 
imagination  and  spiritual  insight.  He  was  quite 
aware  of  this  himself.  ''  I  was  brought  up  on  the 
most  traditional  theology,"  he  once  remarked. 
"  My  father  held  by  the  old  paths  ;  my  mother  had 
an  inquiring  mind,  and  doubtless  much  of  my 
speculative  spirit  comes  from  her."  He  thus  united 
in  himself,  and  in  a  unique  degree,  the  special 
qualities  of  both  his  parents,  and  their  joint 
Influence  on  him  accounts  much  for  the  man  that 
he  afterwards  came  to  be.  Young  Matheson  had, 
therefore,  in  the  character  and  culture  of  his  parents, 
the  most  valuable  asset  with  which  a  child  can  be 
blest.  He  had  also  the  advantage  of  a  full  family 
life.  The  Mathesons  were  eight  :  five  sons  and 
three  daughters.  George  was  the  second  eldest, 
coming  next  to  that  sister  with  whom  his  life  was 
to  be  inseparably  linked  to  the  end.  That  touch  of 
nature  which  marked  him  all  through  was  early 
developed.  It  was  fostered  by  his  home  environ- 
ment, and  ofrew  throuoh  the  contact  and  conflict  of 
the  domestic  circle. 

As  a  child  he  was  inquiring  and  sensitive. 
His  nurse  used  to  be  annoyed  by  his  stopping 
her  in  her  walk  to  ask,  for  instance,  how  masons 
built  houses.  The  memories  of  childhood  lived 
long  in  his  mind.     Towards  the  close  of  the  remark- 


8  EARLY  YEARS 

able  address  which  he  delivered  a  few  years  before 
his  death,  in  proposing  the  Immortal  Memory  at 
the  Edinburgh  Ninety  Burns  Club,  he  refers  to 
the  following  youthful  recollection  :  "I  remember 
how  in  the  days  of  my  boyhood,  in  the  midst  of  a 
crowded  street,  the  scene  of  bustle  and  traffic  and 
commerce,  there  lingered  the  trunk  of  an  old  tree. 
There  it  stood  ;  amid  the  din  and  the  roar  and 
the  rattle,  proclaiming  the  survival  of  the  country 
in  the  town,  like  the  touch  of  a  vanished  hand 
and  the  sound  of  a  voice  that  is  still."  Another 
memory  of  his  boyhood  flashed  upon  him  once 
when  preaching  a  sermon  in  St.  Bernard's  to 
children,  the  day  after  the  Sunday-school  trip. 
The  experience  was  one  with  which  he  would  be 
familiar  after  his  family  had  removed  to  St.  Vincent 
Crescent  in  the  West  End  of  the  city.  The  town 
had  evidently  been  making  encroachments  upon 
Abbotsford  Place,  as  one  can  gather  from  his 
reference  to  the  ''trunk  of  an  old  tree."  In  their 
new  abode  they  would  be  secure  from  the  "  din 
and  the  roar  and  the  rattle  "  of  the  city's  commerce. 
From  the  windows  of  their  house  there  was  an 
unimpeded  view  of  the  upper  reaches  of  the  river ; 
nothing  intervening  but  green  fields.  In  preaching 
to  the  Sunday-school  scholars  on  that  occasion, 
he  chose  as  his  subject  "  The  children  playing  in 
the  streets  of  Jerusalem,"  and  in  the  course  of 
his  sermon  he  told  them  how,  as  a  boy,  he  had 
watched  the  different  steamers  on  the  Clyde. 
To    each    steamer   a   name   had    been    given    by 


EARLY   YEARS  9 

the  children  of  the  Crescent,  and  one  which  was 
always  behind  was  christened  "Sure  to  be  Late." 
He  had  also,  like  his  favourite  poet  Burns,  an 
eye  not  only  for  natural  objects  but  for  the 
dumb  creation  as  well,  and  a  heart  that  felt  for 
their  suffering. 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that,  in  his  early  years,  he 
had  the  use  of  his  eyesight ;  not  by  any  means 
the  full  use,  for  at  the  age  of  eighteen  months 
his  mother  made  the  melancholy  discovery  that  his 
power  of  vision  was  impaired.  The  cause  of  the 
defective  sight  was  found  to  be  inflammation  at 
the  back  of  the  eyes.  Dr.  Mackenzie,  the  leading 
oculist  in  Glasgow  at  the  time,  was  consulted,  but 
he  could  do  nothing.  He  held  out  the  hope, 
however,  that  if  the  boy  lived  to  be  an  old  man  he 
might  see  well.  Other  specialists  were  consulted, 
one  of  whom  declared  that  he  had  a  perfect 
organ  of  vision  ;  but  no  operation  was  proposed, 
and  no  means  could  be  recommended  by  them 
for  effecting  a  cure.  The  fact  of  Dr.  Matheson 
having  what  appeared  to  be  a  perfect  organ  of 
vision,  struck  more  than  the  oculist  referred  to. 
There  were  times  when  his  friends  thought  that 
he  not  only  saw  them,  but  saw  through  them. 
This  must  have  been  Mr.  Eric  Mackay's  experience, 
for  when  visiting  Dr.  Matheson,  along  with  his 
foster-sister  Marie  Corelli,  he  suddenly  paused  in 
the  midst  of  his  conversation  and  remarked,  "  You 
have  a  penetrating  eye,  Dr.  Matheson." 

The  failure  of  his  eyesight  was  gradual.     Dur- 


10  EARLY   YEARS 

ing  the  greater  part  of  his  school-life  he  was  able 
to  see  sufficiently  well  to  read  and  to  write,  and 
to  acquire  a  competent  knowledge  of  the  Classics 
and  of  French  and  German.  He  used  powerful 
glasses  and  availed  himself  of  large  type,  and  was 
permitted  at  school  to  sit  near  a  window  with 
a  southern  exposure  so  that  he  might  get  the 
full  benefit  of  the  sunlight.  But  from  the  time 
that  he  entered  the  University  until  the  end  he 
was  dependent  upon  others.  There  is  indeed  a 
tradition  of  him,  while  in  the  Humanity  Class, 
construing  at  times  from  the  pages  of  his  own 
book,  but  there  were  occasions  when  he  was 
unable  to  do  so.  A  fellow-student  remembers 
young  Matheson  listening  eagerly  to  a  companion 
reciting,  at  the  door  of  the  class-room,  the  lesson 
for  the  day ;  it  was  a  chapter  from  Ramsay's 
Roman  Antiquities,  It  was  only  by  having  it 
read  to  him  that  he  could  learn  its  contents.  By 
the  time  he  entered  the  Logic  Class  his  eyesight 
for  all  practical  purposes  was  gone ;  he  was  then 
in  his  eighteenth  year.  It  never  could  be  said 
that  he  was  totally  blind ;  he  had  his  moments 
of  vision.  Looking  out  from  his  windows  at 
Innellan  Manse,  across  the  Firth,  he  sometimes 
caught  a  shadow  of  the  steamers  as  they  flitted 
up  and  down.  Walking  along  one  of  the  main 
streets  of  Glasgow,  he  at  times  could  discern  the 
sign-boards  above  the  shop  doors  and  windows. 
Indeed,  it  would  almost  seem  as  if  Dr.  Mackenzie's 
prophecy  was  to  become  true,  for  in  the  autumn 


EARLY  YEARS  11 

in  which  he  died,  while  driving  in  North  Berwick 
with  his  two  sisters,  opposite  to  whom  he  sat, 
he  remarked  that  the  one  had  no  veil  while 
the  other  wore  a  thick  black  one  ;  which  was  the 
truth.  A  correspondent  recalls  the  following 
incident : — 

During  the  summer  of  1869  I  was  on  a  visit  to  my 
father  and  mother  at  their  seaside  quarters  at  Innellan. 
One  day  Mr.  Matheson  took  afternoon  tea  with  us.  The 
conversation  turned  on  his  great  deprivation.  My  father, 
who  had  snow-white  whiskers,  and  who  was  seated  near 
him,  asked,  "  Have  you  never  lucid  moments  of  sight,  Mr. 
Matheson  ?  "  "  Yes,"  he  said  ;  "  for  instance,  I  observe  that 
you  have  very  white  whiskers."  In  the  same  connection 
a  lady  related  to  me  an  incident  which  seemed  to  have 
had  rather  a  touch  of  romance  about  it.  She  was  a  young 
widow,  and  a  member  of  his  church.  One  day  she  sailed 
with  him  in  the  steamer  to  Glasgow,  when  it  happened 
that  she  wore  a  bright  new  brooch.  They  were  standing 
together  in  the  cabin,  the  lady  closer  perhaps  than  she 
would  have  ventured  if  her  young  minister  had  had  his 
eyesight.  She  was  looking  at  his  face  with  a  yearning 
sympathy,  when  a  sudden  flood  of  sunlight  came  through 
the  adjoining  cabin  window,  illuminating  them  both.     "  I 

think,  Mrs. ,  you  have  got  on  a  new  brooch,"  said  Mr. 

Matheson.     "  And  didn't  I  get  a  red  face,"  said  Mrs. . 

The  occasions,  however,  on  which  there  were 
such  luminous  breaks  in  the  darkness  that  shrouded 
him  were  few  in  number.  It  is  possible  that  if 
the  medical  knowledge  of  his  day  had  been 
equal  to  what  it  is  in  ours,  the  disease  might 
have  been  cured  in  its  initial  stages,  and  then 
we  would  have  had  even  a  greater  George 
Matheson ;  for  those  who  knew  him  in  his  early 
schooldays,    before    his    defective    eyesight    grew 


12  EARLY   YEARS 

so  bad  as  to  make  him  dependent  upon  others, 
were  conscious  of  the  splendid  use  he  could  have 
made  of  the  faculty  of  vision.  It  has,  however, 
been  remarked  that  his  loss  of  eyesight  was  in 
a  sense  the  making  of  him.  This  may  be  true, 
if  we  reflect  on  the  moral  heroism  which  he  dis- 
played in  rising  superior  to  the  physical  calamity 
which  would  have  crushed  most  men,  and  mak- 
ing it  a  stepping-stone  to  spiritual  triumphs.  I  am 
aware  that  those  who  speak  thus  are  of  opinion 
that  his  natural  defect  threw  him  back  upon 
himself,  compelled  him  to  meditate  upon  Divine 
things,  and  thereby  enabled  him  to  produce  those 
works  which  by  their  depth,  insight,  and  suggest- 
iveness  have  been  the  joy  and  comfort  of  many. 
That  touch  of  mysticism  in  his  preaching  and 
writing,  in  which  consisted  much  of  their  charm, 
they  hold,  might  have  been  wanting  if  Matheson 
had  been  distracted  by  those  sights  which  disturb 
or  absorb  the  thoughts  of  most  men.  There  may 
be  a  measure  of  truth  in  this,  but  only,  after  all,  a 
very  limited  measure.  George  Matheson  was  cast 
by  nature  in  the  mould  with  which  we  are  familiar, 
and  his  education,  environment,  profession,  and 
impaired  eyesight  may  each  have  had  its  share  in 
his  spiritual  and  intellectual  development ;  but  his 
own  personality  was  greater  than  them  all,  and  they 
and  the  other  circumstances  of  his  life  were  utilised 
by  it  in  forming  and  perfecting  his  character  and 
finishing  his  work. 

Hearers  of  Dr.   Matheson's  preaching,  readers 


EARLY  YEARS  13 

of  his  books,  and  even  members  of  his  congrega- 
tion, seldom  thought,  perhaps,  that  there  was  a 
time  in  his  Hfe  when  the  awful  tragedy  of  the  loss 
of  his  eyesight  all  but  overwhelmed  him.  He  was 
such  an  optimist,  so  buoyant  and  inspiring,  that  it 
would  not  occur  to  them  that  he  was  blind,  or  that 
there  was  an  hour  in  his  life  when  he  all  but 
succumbed  to  the  deep  despondency  into  which  his 
threatened  loss  threw  him.  Yet  there  was  such  an 
hour.  He  had  as  a  boy  the  happiest  of  natures  ; 
he  took  unaffected  delight  in  every  pleasure  that 
was  innocent ;  he  was  companionable,  and  shared 
the  interests,  the  pastimes,  and  the  joys  of  his 
family  and  schoolfellows.  He  had  a  mind  that 
reached  forward  to  the  boundaries  of  knowledge, 
a  soul  that  yearned  to  be  in  touch  with  every- 
thing divine  and  human  ;  he  took  a  natural  zest 
in  life,  and  was  ambitious  of  probing  its  depths 
to  the  full.  And  yet  at  the  very  opening  of  his 
manhood  the  appalling  fact  faced  him  that  he  would 
have  to  go  through  life  maimed,  crippled  in  that 
very  faculty  by  whose  means  the  world  of  know- 
ledge, in  which  from  his  earliest  years  he  took 
supreme  delight,  could  be  gained ;  and  debarred 
from  sharing  in  those  human  interests  in  which  his 
soul  rejoiced.  He  felt  more  than  a  momentary 
shock  when  he  knew  that  a  cure  was  impossible. 

It  was  now  that  he  entered  upon  the  great 
struggle  of  his  life  and  encountered  the  trial  which 
tested  his  character  to  the  utmost.  It  has  always 
seemed  to  me  that  there  is  more  than  a  reminiscence 


14  EARLY  YEARS 

of  this  period  in  his  study  of  the  Book  of  Job.  The 
problem  which  this  profound  poem  raises  had  a 
singular  attraction  for  him.  It  formed  the  subject 
of  the  sermon  which  he  preached  before  Queen 
Victoria  at  Balmoral,  and  he  dealt  with  it  on 
subsequent  occasions  in  the  pulpit  and  through  the 
press.  It  was  the  very  problem  which  he  himself, 
in  the  first  blush  of  eager  manhood,  had  to  solve, 
not  only  theoretically  but  practically,  by  a  veritable 
agony  and  bloody  sweat.  Why  should  the  innocent 
have  to  suffer  ?  Why  should  a  catastrophe  alto- 
gether unmerited  befall  him  ?  Why  should  his 
career,  through  no  fault  of  his,  be  blasted  on  its 
very  threshold  ?  Why  should  he  be  denied  those 
natural  and  intellectual  joys  for  which  he  was  so 
well  adapted  ?  These  and  similar  questions  that 
test  a  man's  faith  recurred  to  him  with  overwhelm- 
ing force  at  this  time  ;  and  his  after  life,  from  that 
very  moment  to  its  close,  was  a  proof  that  he 
answered  them  in  the  only  way  by  which  peace  is 
possible.  In  the  spirit  of  his  Master  he  conquered 
through  submission.  Thus  early  did  he  enter  into 
the  very  Holy  of  Holies,  and  discover  the  secret 
of  Christianity. 

His  education  began  at  a  very  early  period.  A 
tutor  at  first  came  in  to  teach  him.  Afterwards  he 
went  to  a  school  in  Carlton  Place,  conducted  by  a 
Miss  Hutcheson,  and  then  to  Mr.  Buchanan's  in  St. 
Georore's  Place.  Somethino^  more  than  a  tradition 
remains  of  this  pedagogue.  Many  men  who  after- 
wards   became    famous    passed,    in    their    youth, 


EARLY   YEARS  15 

through  his  hands.  He  had  considerable  reputa- 
tion as  an  educationist,  and  excelled  as  a  teacher  of 
elocution.  It  is  not  at  all  unlikely  that  Matheson's 
oratorical  gifts  received  their  first  impetus  from  his 
early  schoolmaster.  Buchanan,  after  retiring  from 
his  profession,  resided  at  Port  Bannatyne  in  Bute. 
He  was  in  the  habit  of  entertaining  his  friends  with 
a  rehearsal  of  his  triumphs  in  the  teaching  art, 
boasting  of  the  distinguished  men  whose  early 
genius  he  had  inspired,  and  taking  not  a  little 
credit  to  himself  for  Matheson's  gifts  as  a 
preacher. 

It  was  when  George  was  about  ten  years  of  age 
that  the  Mathesons  removed  to  the  West  End  of 
the  city.  The  district  which  they  chose  for  their 
residence  was  quite  in  the  country.  Those  who 
know  Glasgow  only  as  it  now  is  can  hardly  believe 
that  St.  Vincent  Crescent  could  ever  have  been  in 
the  country.  It  is  now  surrounded  by  docks,  rail- 
way lines,  and  public  works.  Like  Abbotsford 
Place,  it  has  had  to  yield  to  the  pressure  of  the 
city's  industry.  The  Mathesons  took  up  their 
abode  first  in  No.  60  and  afterwards  in  No.  30, 
and  it  was  in  these  two  houses  that  the  foundation 
of  their  son's  education  was  laid.  They  were 
fortunate  in  having  within  an  easy  walking  distance 
one  of  the  two  best  schools  in  the  city.  This  was 
the  Glasgow  Academy,  recently  erected.  It  was 
at  that  time  situated  in  Elmbank  Street.  After 
the  passing  of  the  Scotch  Education  Bill  it  was 
bought  by  the   School  Board,  and  to  it  the  High 


16  EARLY   YEARS 

School  was  removed  from  Its  old  premises  in  John 
Street,  the  Academy  migrating  westward  to  hand- 
some new  buildings  across  the  Kelvin,  in  Hlllhead. 
Young  Matheson's  first  session  in  the  Academy- 
was  in  1853  ;  he  remained  in  it  altogether  four 
years,  and  his  record  was  one  of  unbroken  distinc- 
tion. The  close  of  his  first  year  at  the  school  saw 
him  Dux  of  his  Class.  He  in  addition  gained  the 
prize  for  History  and  Religious  Knowledge.  His 
second  year  at  the  Academy  was  his  first  in  Latin. 
On  this  occasion  he  won  the  second  prize,  and 
carried  off  the  prizes  in  History,  Geography,  and 
English  Composition.  In  his  third  session  he 
resumed  his  former  place  as  Dux  of  his  Class, 
winning  all  the  other  special  prizes,  and  in  addition 
the  prize  in  Science.  Had  he  completed  his  full 
course  he  would  no  doubt  have  been  in  his  last 
year  Dux  of  the  School,  but  he  left  at  the  close  of 
the  Session  1856-7,  and  never  took  the  fifth  Latin 
Class,  which  at  that  time  was  the  highest.  One 
of  Dr.  Matheson's  old  schoolfellows,  Mr.  James 
Hotson  of  Glasgow,  gives  the  following  remin- 
iscences of  those  far-off  days  : — 

My  first  acquaintance  with  Dr.  Matheson  would  be 
about  1853,  when  my  father's  family  removed  to  No.  31 
St.  Vincent  Crescent.  George  Matheson  and  his  next 
brother  attended  the  same  school  with  some  of  us, — the 
Glasgow  Academy, — and  my  younger  brother  Hamilton 
and  myself  came,  after  a  time,  to  be  in  the  same  class 
with  him.  It  happened  thus  that  we  frequently  walked 
to  and  from  school  together.  The  usual  route  was  along 
Kent  Road,  then  a  real  road,  with  deep  hollows,  called 
"orchards,"   on    both    sides.     There   were   orchards   also 


EARLY  YEARS  17 

behind  the  Academy  playground,  so  that  when  a  football 
happened  to  be  kicked  over  the  paling  it  frequently  took 
some  time  to  recover  it.  There  were  at  that  time  two 
headmasters  in  Classics,  Dr.  M'Burney  and  Mr.  Currie. 
Matheson  was  at  first  under  the  former,  but  in  1856  he 
changed  to  Mr.  Currie's,  under  whom  my  brother  and  I 
had  been  all  along.  Mr.  Currie,  to  judge  by  his  CcBsar 
for  Begijiners  and  Notes  on  Ho7'ace^  both  used  in  his 
classes,  must  have  been  a  man  of  considerable  scholar- 
ship, but  I  cannot  say  he  was  much  of  a  teacher. 
He  conducted  the  class  usually  after  a  sleepy  sort  of 
fashion,  alternating  with  periods  when  he  made  things 
just  a  little  too  lively.  Our  principal  other  teachers 
were  Mr.  Bell  (English),  Mr.  Reid  (Arithmetic  and 
Mathematics),  Mr.  Gow  (Writing  and  Book-keeping), 
and  Mr.  Finlay  (French  and  German).  I  cannot 
remember  anything  of  Matheson's  appearances  in  Mr. 
Bell's  or  Mr.  Reid's  class.  Both  were  pleasant  men 
generally,  although  at  times  they  could  be  stern 
enough.  Mr.  Gow  was  good-natured  even  to  softness. 
Matheson  and  I  had  a  seat  next  each  other,  at  a  desk 
facing  a  window,  and  the  circumstance  that,  with  such 
light  as  he  would  thus  get,  he  could  practise  a  kind  of 
half- text,  shows  that  at  that  period  his  eyesight  was  not 
nearly  so  defective  as  it  afterwards  became.  He  and  I 
were  then  engrossed  with  Byron's  "  Corsair,"  and  I  regret 
to  say  that  I  occasionally  carried  the  book  in  my  pocket 
and  read  bits  of  it  to  him  when  we  ought  to  have  been 
attending  to  our  copy-books.  Mr.  Finlay  was  also 
extremely  good-natured.  When  he  set  us  to  recite  a 
portion  of  some  amusing  French  Comedy,  which  he 
frequently  did,  and  laughed  himself  as  heartily  as  any  of 
the  boys,  it  seemed  more  like  a  dramatic  entertainment 
than  a  school  lesson.  I  remember  Matheson,  James 
Carlile,  and  my  brother  taking  part  in  one  of  these 
recitals.  But  our  principal  class  was  Mr.  Currie's,  in 
which,  besides  Latin  and  Greek,  we  had  lessons  in  History, 
Geography,  Religious  Knowledge,  and  English  Com- 
position. Matheson  from  the  first  distinguished  himself 
in   all   these,  but  it  was  chiefly  in  English   Composition 


18  EARLY  YEARS 

that  he  excelled.  In  this,  however,  he  had  a  keen  rival 
in  John  Ronald,  who  had  long  been  acknowledged  first 
in  this  department,  and  was  bitterly  jealous  in  conse- 
quence. Matheson  composed  a  poem  "  Bethany  Tears," 
and  the  boys  subscribed  and  had  it  printed.  It  began 
thus : 

Once  when  the  world  in  pomp  and  pride  swept  by, 
And  "  Raise  up  Mammon  "  was  its  ruling  cry. 
When  man  in  sin's  embrace  had  fallen  asleep, 
The  God-man  Jesus  was  constrained  to  weep. 
Time  has  flown  on  with  wings  of  speed  arrayed, 
Empires  have  risen,  flourished,  and  decayed ; 
Great  kings  and  warriors  in  oblivion  lie. 
But  those  embittering  tears  can  never  dry. 

Without  delay  Ronald  came  out  with  a  lampoon  on 
Matheson,  commencing : 

In  sparkling  Clutha's  verdant  vale, 
A  verdant  Homer  chants  his  tale, 

which  though  not  printed  was  quickly  circulated  through- 
out the  class.  Towards  the  end  of  the  session  Matheson 
wrote  and  recited  another  set  of  verses,  the  refrain  of 
which  was : 

Up,  up  and  rejoice,  the  vacation  is  nigh, 

which  showed  that  his  good  spirits  were  not  much 
affected  by  Ronald's  rivalry.  Of  the  other  leading  boys  in 
his  class,  which  numbered  about  eighty,  I  need  scarcely  say 
anything.  There  was  one,  however,  who  afterwards  highly 
distinguished  himself  in  the  literary  world  as  poet, 
novelist,  and  playwright — I  mean  Robert  Buchanan.  He 
made  no  figure  to  speak  of  in  any  of  the  classes.  I 
suppose  he  was  too  much  occupied  with  Shakespere, 
then  his  favourite  author,  to  do  justice  to  his  lessons. 
Although  he  also  lived  in  St.  Vincent  Crescent,  and  must 
frequently  have  walked  to  and  from  school  with  the 
other  Sandyford  and  Partick  pupils,  I  don't  think 
Matheson  and  he  ever  got  intimately  acquainted.     My 


EARLY   YEARS  19 

brother  and  I  knew  him  quite  well,  and  spent  a  good  deal 
of  time  in  his  company.  The  most  remarkable  feature  in 
his  personal  appearance  was  his  enormous  head.  I  could 
give  some  reminiscences  of  him,  but  "  that  is  another 
story."  Matheson  at  school  was  well  liked  and  very 
popular.  He  was  always  in  good  spirits  and  full  of 
laughter. 

One  at  the  first  blush  must  feel  surprise  at  the 
high  spirits  of  young  Matheson  and  the  success 
of  his  schooldays.  Credit  him  v^Ith  the  most 
cheerful  nature  and  the  most  brilliant  talents  that 
ever  a  youth  possessed,  the  portrait  of  him  that 
has  thus  been  drawn  by  an  old  companion  surely 
calls  for  some  explanation.  This  will  be  found  in 
his  home  life.  No  youth  could  be  more  happily 
situated  In  this  respect  than  he  was.  His  parents, 
on  discovering  his  talents,  gave  him  every  en- 
couragement, and  having  ample  means  at  their 
disposal  were  quite  prepared  to  spare  no  expense 
on  his  education.  But  the  difficulty  faced  him  how, 
with  the  Increasing  loss  of  eyesight,  he  could 
acquire  a  knowledge  of  subjects  which  were 
necessary  for  a  scholastic  career  and  continue 
abreast  of  the  progress  demanded  of  any  who 
aspired  to  a  University  degree  and  a  learned  pro- 
fession. It  was  when  this  need  became  apparent 
that  the  members  of  his  family  rallied  round  him 
and  began  to  show  that  devotion  to  his  Interests 
which  continued  to  the  very  end.  The  home  of 
the  Mathesons  at  this  period  affords  a  picture  of 
a  ''Scottish  Interior,"  equal  In  beauty,  on  Its  own 
lines,  to  that  which  Burns  gives  in  the  "  Cottar's 


20  EARLY   YEARS 

Saturday  Night."  We  see  the  father  and  mother 
with  the  other  members  of  the  family  gathering 
round  the  budding  preacher,  who  at  the  early  age 
of  seven  improvised  a  church  and  congregation, 
and  standing  on  a  chair  which  for  the  occasion  was 
dignified  into  a  pulpit,  and  with  a  pair  of  paper 
bands  on  his  breast,  astonished  his  hearers  by 
delivering  sermons  which  showed  an  ability  and 
an  eloquence  far  beyond  his  years.  While  still  a 
schoolboy  he  wrote  a  play  with  Theseus  as  its 
hero.  This  play  was  frequently  acted  in  his 
mother's  drawing-room ;  his  brothers  and  sisters 
taking  the  leading  parts,  with  a  select  number  of 
relatives  and  friends  as  auditors. 

It  was,  however,  in  relation  to  his  studies,  and 
the  necessary  preparation  of  them  for  school  and 
University,  that  the  devotion  of  his  family  comes 
into  the  boldest  relief.  Latin,  Greek,  and  Hebrew 
do  not  as  a  rule  commend  themselves  to  the  minds 
of  women.  It  is  only  within  recent  years,  after 
the  gates  of  the  Universities  were  thrown  open 
to  them,  that  the  gentler  sex  began  to  show  any 
special  interest  in  these  subjects.  Yet  in  this 
''Scottish  Interior"  we  see  two  of  Dr.  Matheson's 
young  sisters  labouring  earnestly  to  acquire  a  know- 
ledge of  these  languages,  so  that  they  might  be  able 
to  read  them  to  their  brother  and  thereby  assist  him 
in  his  career. 

It  was  at  an  even  earlier  staofe  than  this  that 
his  eldest  sister  began  to  forge  those  links  which 
joined  her  in  so  close  a  union  with  her  brother, 


EARLY  YEARS  21 

and  which   grew  in  strength  as  the  years  passed 
by.      It    was    she    who    taught    him    to    read,    and 
she     still    remembers    the    childish    delight    with 
which  she  one  day  announced  to  her  mother  that 
George    was   able    to    spell.     The    interest  of  the 
other  members  of  the  family  might   flag  or  vary, 
but  hers  knew  no  change.     She  was  in  very  truth 
his  alter  ego,  and   it  was   touching   to   notice  the 
way  in  which  he  leaned  upon  her.     Her  sympathy 
and   companionship  had  become  indispensable  to 
him,    and    the    one    great    dread    of    his    life    was 
that  she  might  be  taken    first.      It  is    impossible 
to  measure  her  literary   labours,   especially  during 
the  earlier  period  of  her  brother  s  life.     His  college 
exercises    and    essays    are    in    her    hand-writing. 
It  was  she,   too,   who  to  his  dictation    wrote   his 
earlier  sermons.     It  was  not  until  he  had  entered 
upon  his  ministerial  career  that  the  services  of  a 
permanent  secretary  were  secured,  and  she  was  in 
a  measure  relieved.     This,  after  all,  was  but  giving 
up  one  task   to   undertake   another,    for  after   he 
became  a  parish  minister,  and  his  rising  fame  drew 
crowds  of  admirers  to  his  door,  upon  her  largely 
rested  the  burden  of  oruidine  her  brother  throuo^h 
the  quicksands  and  pitfalls  of  congregational   and 
^parochial  life,  and  of  tempering  those  social    rela- 
tions into  which  his  position  naturally  drew  him. 
In  a  scrap-book,  which  dates  from   1868,  there  is 
to  be  found  on  its  very  first  page  a  sonnet  by  the 
Archbishop  of  Dublin  on  a  "  Brother  and  Sister" 
who   died   at    the   same   time.      It  was    evidently 


22  EARLY   YEARS 

selected  for  preservation  because  of  the  singular 
manner  in  which  it  expressed  not  only  their  affec- 
tion but  also  their  wish  : 

Men  said  who  saw  the  tender  love  they  bare 

Each  to  the  other,  and  their  hearts  so  bound 

And  knit  in  one,  that  neither  sought  nor  found 

A  nearer  tie  than  that  affection  rare — 

How  with  the  sad  survivor  will  it  fare, 

When  death  shall  for  a  season  have  undone 

The  links  of  that  close  love  ;  and  taking  one 

The  other  leaves  to  draw  unwelcome  air  ? 

And  some  perchance  who  loved  them,  would  revolve. 

Sadly  the  sadness  which  on  one  must  fall, 

The  lonely  left  by  that  dividing  day. 

Vain  fears  !  for  He  who  loved  them  best  of  all, 

Mightier  than  we  life's  mysteries  to  solve,- 

In  one  fire  chariot  bore  them  both  away. 


CHAPTER   II 

STUDENT   DAYS 

Dr.  Matheson's  early  Interest  in  intellectual  pur- 
suits clearly  marked  him  out  for  a  professional 
career.  His  impaired  eyesight,  with  every  indica- 
tion of  its  final  loss,  necessarily  limited  his  choice. 
His  own  inclinations  pointed  to  the  Bar.  Indeed, 
in  after  years,  he  used  to  declare  that  if  he  had 
been  without  any  physical  impediment,  this  is  the 
profession  he  would  have  chosen.  One  can  readily 
understand  the  reasons  which  would  weigh  with 
him  in  preferring  such  a  choice.  He  possessed 
in  a  marked  degree  the  qualities  necessary  for 
success  in  such  a  career.  He  had  natural  ability, 
mental  alertness,  and  the  gift  of  speech.  His 
buoyancy  of  nature  and  indomitable  perseverance 
would  have  enabled  him  to  surmount  the  prelimin- 
ary drudgery,  and  to  wait  for  his  first  great 
opportunity.  It  may  be  profitless  to  forecast  his 
success  in  such  a  profession,  but  it  is  surely  not 
too  much  to  say  that,  all  things  being  equal,  he 
would  have  risen  to  eminence  and  become  one 
of  the  most  distinguished  advocates  of  his  time. 

23 


24  STUDENT   DAYS 

How  striking  a  resemblance  exists  in  this  re- 
spect between  the  opening  years  of  his  life  and 
those  of  Robertson  of  Brighton  ?  Robertson's  / 
early  ambition  was  to  be  a  soldier  ;  Matheson's, 
a  barrister.  An  unseen  Hand  intervened  in  both 
cases  and  led  them  to  the  Church ;  but  as 
Robertson's  early  pieties  marked  him  out  for  the 
career  which  he  in  the  end  was  to  follow,  may  we 
not  see  in  young  Matheson,  preaching,  at  the  age 
of  seven,  sermons  to  his  family  which  caused  them 
to  wonder,  that  his  choice  had  already  been  made, 
although  at  the  time  he  was  altogether  unaware  of 
it. 

The  young  scholar  was  singularly  fortunate  in 
the  place  of  his  birth.  He  had  at  his  door  not  only 
one  of  the  best  schools  which  his  native  country 
could  provide,  but  a  University  whose  roots  were 
deeply  imbedded  in  the  past,  and  whose  steadily 
growing  fame  gave  an  impetus  to  the  student  who 
was  ambitious  of  scholastic  success.  The  Uni- 
versity of  Glasgow  was  founded  in  the  Middle 
Ages,  when  the  city,  of  which  it  was  afterwards  to 
be  so  distinguished  an  ornament,  was  little  more 
than  a  village.  It  was  subjected  to  many  vicissi- 
tudes, especially  in  its  early  years  ;  and  immediately 
after  the  Reformation  it  had  all  but  vanished. 
New  life  was  put  into  it  by  Andrew  Melville,  its 
first  great  Principal,  and  from  his  day  till  our  own 
it  has  never,  with  the  exception  of  one  or  two 
pauses,  looked  back.  It  has  within  recent  years 
entered  upon  a  period  of  hopeful  expansion,  and  its 


STUDENT   DAYS  25 

future  promises  to  be  more  than  worthy  of  its  past. 
Since  Matheson  left  the  University,  only  forty  years 
ago,  it  has,  however,  undergone  so  many  changes, 
almost  amounting  to  a  revolution,  that  the  young 
student  of  to-day  can  have  no  idea  of  what  his 
Alma  Mater  was  half  a  century  ago.  Her  home 
is  now  on  Gilmorehlll ;  it  was  then  in  the  High 
Street.  The  house  in  which  she  dwelt  was  be- 
grimed with  the  city's  smoke  ;  her  new  abode 
shines  resplendent. 

The  ancient  College  of  Glasgow,  as  it  appeared 
to  the  men  and  women  of  the  eighteenth  or  nine- 
teenth century,  is  now  a  thing  of  the  past.  Every 
stone  of  it  has  been  carried  away  ;  and  with  the 
exception  of  the  lodge  at  the  main  entrance  to  the 
present  University,  and  the  stairway  that  leads 
from  the  professors'  court  to  the  quadrangle,  not  a 
vestige  of  it  remains.  In  a  few  years  very  few 
will  be  alive  who  studied  in  the  old  place,  and  it 
will  be  difficult  for  future  generations  to  believe 
that  the  site  of  the  present  unsightly  railway  depot 
was  once  dedicated  to  learning  and  to  the  Muses. 
The  old  buildings,  with  which  Matheson  and  his 
contemporaries  were  so  familiar,  were  begun  early 
in  the  seventeenth  century,  and  a  hundred  years 
elapsed  before  they  were  quite  completed. 
Glasgow  was  proud  of  them  in  their  day,  and  Sir 
Walter  Scott  writes  in  Rob  Roy,  with  not  a  little 
enthusiasm,  of  the  **  old-fashioned  buildings,"  "the 
college  yards,"  and  ''the  solitude  of  the  place"; 
"  the  grounds  opening  in  a  sort  of  wilderness,  laid 


26  STUDENT   DAYS 

out  in  the  Dutch  taste  with  dipt  hedges  and  one 
or  two  statues."  Other  writers,  from  "Jupiter" 
Carlyle  to  A.  K.  H.  Boyd,  have  exercised  their 
gifts  in  describing  the  ancient  University  and 
College  life  in  Glasgow.  Carlyle  had  not  a  very 
sharp  eye  for  externals  ;  he  is  for  the  most  part 
silent  about  the  buildings  themselves.  He  was 
much  more  interested  in  the  human  beings  that 
inhabited  them,  or  who,  at  any  rate,  found  in  them 
the  centre  of  their  existence.  Nothing  that  has 
since  been  written  can  be  at  all  compared  to  his 
vivid  sketches  of  Glasgow  society  and  Collegiate 
life  in  the  year  immediately  preceding  the 
'45.  Principal  Campbell,  Professors  Leechman, 
Hutcheson,  and  Simson,  still  live  in  the  pages 
of  his  famous  Autobiogr^aphy.  But  it  was  the 
Principal's  daughter,  "  Miss  Mally,"  who  was  the 
chief  personage,  in  the  estimation  of  young 
**  Jupiter,"  of  all  the  brilliant  set  in  which  he 
mingled.  ''For  on  asking,"  he  says,  "my  friend 
James  Edgar,  afterwards  a  commissioner  of  the 
Customs,  for  a  letter  of  introduction  to  someone 
of  importance  and  influence,  he  gave  me  one  to 
Miss  Mally  Campbell,  the  daughter  of  the 
Principal ;  and  when  I  seemed  surprised  at  his 
choice,  he  added  that  I  would  find  her  not  only 
more  beautiful  than  any  woman  there,  but  more 
sensible  and  friendly  than  all  the  professors  put 
together,  and  much  more  useful  to  me.  This,"  he 
adds,  "  I  found  to  be  literally  true." 

Lockhart,  Scott's  son-in-law,  in  Peter  s  Letters 


STUDENT   DAYS  27 

to  his  Kinsfolk,  and  Captain  Hamilton,  brother  of 
the  famous  Sir  William,  in  Cyril  Thornton,  give 
descriptions  of  the  College  and  College  life  in  their 
day,  but  the  account  which  affords  the  best  idea  of 
the  external  appearance  of  the  University  buildings 
as  they  existed  in  Matheson's  time  is  A.  K.  H.  B.'s, 
who  himself  was  a  student  of  Glasgow  University. 
It  will  be  found  in  his  Leiszire  Hours  in  Town,  and 
refers  to  the  period  when  Matheson  was  still  an 
undergraduate  : 

The  stranger  in  Glasgow  who  has  paid  a  visit  to  the 
noble  cathedral,  has  probably,  in  returning  from  it,  walked 
down  the  High  Street,  a  steep  and  filthy  way  of  tall 
houses,  now  abandoned  to  the  poorest  classes  of  the 
community,  where  dirty  women  in  mutches,  each  followed 
by  two  or  three  squalid  children,  hold  loud  conversations 
all  day  long;  and  the  alleys  leading  from  which  pour 
forth  a  flood  of  poverty,  disease,  and  crime.  On  the  left 
hand  of  the  High  Street,  where  it  becomes  a  shade  more 
respectable,  a  dark,  low-browed  building  of  three  storeys 
in  height  fronts  the  street  for  two  or  three  hundred  yards. 
That  is  Glasgow  College ;  for  here,  as  also  at  Edinburgh, 
the  University  consists  of  a  single  College.  The  first 
gateway  at  which  we  arrive  opens  into  a  dull-looking 
court,  inhabited  by  the  professors,  eight  or  ten  of  whom 
have  houses  here.  Farther  down,  a  low  archway,  which 
is  the  main  entrance  to  the  building,  admits  to  two  or 
three  quadrangles,  occupied  by  the  various  class-rooms. 

There  is  something  impressive  in  the  sudden  transition 
from  one  of  the  most  crowded  and  noisy  streets  of  the 
city  to  the  calm  and  stillness  of  the  College  courts.  The 
first  court  we  enter  is  a  small  one,  surrounded  by 
buildings  of  a  dark  and  venerable  aspect.  An  antique 
staircase  of  massive  stone  leads  to  the  Faculty  Hall  or 
Senate  House ;  and  a  spire  of  considerable  height  sur- 
mounts a  vaulted  archway  leading  to  the  second  court. 
This  court  is  much  larger  than  the  one  next  the  street, 


28  STUDENT  DAYS 

and  with  its  turrets  and  winding  staircases,  narrow 
windows  and  high-pitched  roofs,  would  quite  come  up 
to  our  ideas  of  academic  architecture ;  but  unhappily, 
some  years  since,  one  side  of  this  venerable  quadrangle 
was  pulled  down,  and  a  large  building  in  the  Grecian  style 
erected  in  its  place,  which,  like  a  pert  interloper,  contrasts 
most  disagreeably  with  the  remainder  of  the  old  monastic 
pile.  Passing  out  of  this  court  by  another  vaulted 
passage,  we  enter  an  open  square,  to  the  right  of  which  is 
the  University  library,  and  at  some  little  distance  an 
elegant  Doric  temple  which  is  greatly  admired  by  those 
who  prefer  Grecian  to  Gothic  architecture.  This  is  the 
Hunterian  Museum,  and  contains  a  valuable  collection  of 
subjects  in  natural  history  and  anatomy  bequeathed  by 
the  eminent  surgeon  whose  name  it  bears.  Beyond  this 
building  the  College  gardens  stretch  away  to  a  consider- 
able distance.  The  ground  is  undulating — there  are 
many  trees,  and  what  was  once  a  pleasant  country  stream 
flows  through  the  gardens ;  but  Glasgow  factories  and 
Glasgow  smoke  have  quite  spoiled  what  must  once  have 
been  a  delightful  retreat  from  the  dust  and  glare  of  the 
city.  The  trees  are  now  quite  blackened,  the  stream 
(named  the  Molendinar  Burn)  became  so  offensive  that 
it  was  found  necessary  to  arch  it  over,  and  drifts  of  stifling 
and  noisome  smoke  trail  slowly  all  day  over  the  College 
gardens.  There  are  no  evergreens  nor  flowers ;  and  the 
students  generally  prefer  to  take  their  constitutional  in  the 
purer  air  of  the  western  outskirts  of  Glasgow. 

The  other  changes  that  have  taken  place  are 
even  more  far-reaching  than  those  which  have 
affected  the  external  appearance  and  locality  of 
the  University.  In  Matheson's  day  students  of 
all  ages,  from  tv^elve  to  forty  years,  might  be 
found  sitting  on  the  same  bench.  No  conditions 
were  exacted  as  to  scholarship.  Anyone  who 
could  pay  his  fees  was  entitled  to  admittance,  and 
to  all  the  advantages  which  the  University  could 


STUDENT   DAYS  29 

confer.  It  was  a  strange  sight  in  those  days,  not 
so  very  far  distant,  to  see  "the  shepherd's  son 
from  the  banks  of  the  Teviot  take  his  place  in  the 
class-room  with  the  son  of  the  Lord  of  Session,  or 
of  the  country  squire,  with  nothing  to  mark  his 
social  inferiority."  This  may  still  be  found,  but 
it  is  the  exception  to  see  the  greybeard  sitting 
side  by  side  with  the  youth  on  whose  chin  the 
incipient  signs  of  manhood  have  not  as  yet  begun 
to  appear. 

There  is  a  final  change  which  deserves  to  be 
noted  in  passing.  The  struggles  which  many  a 
Scottish  lad,  who  determined  to  graduate  at  one 
or  other  of  the  Universities  of  his  native  land, 
had  to  face  have  become  a  national  tradition. 
Scott  has  immortalised  them  in  his  sketch  of  the 
early  career  of  Dominie  Sampson.  That  their 
son  ''might  wag  his  pow  in  a  pulpit  the  poor 
parents  pinched  and  pared,  rose  early  and  lay 
down  late,  ate  dry  bread  and  drank  cold  water." 
Sampson  himself,  as  the  representative  of  a  type, 
is  described  as  slinking  "from  College  by  the 
most  secret  paths  he  could  discover,  and  plunging 
himself  into  his  most  miserable  lodeine,  where 
for  eighteen-pence  a  week  he  was  allowed  the 
benefit  of  a  straw  mattress,  and,  if  his  landlady 
was  in  good  humour,  permission  to  study  his 
task  by  her  fire."  There  may  be  some  exaggera- 
tion in  all  this,  but,  making  every  allowance,  a 
fair  proportion  of  Scottish  students  of  the  olden 
time  had  to  fight  hard  for  the  means  which  would 


30  STUDENT   DAYS 

enable  them  to  keep  body  and  soul  together 
while  attending  the  University.  Private  teaching 
in  winter  while  the  College  was  in  Session,  and 
manual  labour  in  summer  during  the  Long  Vaca- 
tion, was  the  order  of  the  day  for  many.  The  self- 
sacrifice  of  the  parents,  and  even  of  brothers  and 
sisters,  gave  a  pathetic  interest  to  the  student's 
struggle,  and  helped  not  a  little  to  form  that 
special  type  of  character  for  which  Scotland  is 
famous.  Many  causes  have  arisen  during  the 
last  half  century  to  change  all  this.  The  country 
itself  has  increased  vastly  in  wealth ;  bursaries 
and  scholarships  have  been  greatly  multiplied  ; 
Mr.  Carnegie  has  stepped  in  with  his  princely 
benefaction  to  abolish  class  fees  and  to  endow 
research ;  Societies  and  Churches  are  founding 
hostels  for  the  cheap  and  comfortable  housing  of 
the  students,  so  that  learning,  which  in  past  days 
a  Scottish  lad  had  to  fight  for,  so  to  speak,  with 
the  naked  sword,  is  being  now  administered  by  a 
silver  spoon.  What  effect  this  may  have  on  the 
future  of  the  national  character  time  alone  can 
tell. 

The  Scottish  University  system  in  vogue  in 
Matheson's  day,  as  will  readily  be  seen,  afforded 
a  good  training  for  character.  It  was  free,  in- 
dependent, and  gave  room  for  the  mingling 
together  of  many  varieties  of  social  rank  and 
mental  attainment.  Types,  as  far  asunder  as  the 
poles,  were  brought  together  in  a  common  centre, 
and   the  battle   of  life,   which  the    youthful    com- 


STUDENT  DAYS  31 

batants  would  have  to  wage  to  the  end,  was  there 
and  then  begun,  under  the  conditions  that  would 
prevail  all  through.  Matheson  threw  himself 
heartily  into  University  life,  and  his  bright  intellect 
and  undoubted  powers,  which  would  have  gained 
him  distinction  under  any  circumstances,  were 
enhanced  in  the  estimation  of  his  fellow-students 
by  his  constant  cheerfulness  and  hopefulness, 
which  to  them  seemed  nothing  less  than  marvellous 
in  view  of  the  physical  disadvantage  under  which 
he  laboured.  No  student  of  his  time  was  more 
popular  than  he,  and  fond  memories  of  him  are 
cherished  to  this  day  by  surviving  contemporaries. 

It  was  fortunate  for  young  Matheson  that  he 
began  his  College  life  under  the  most  favourable 
circumstances.  There  was  no  need  for  him  to 
struggle  for  existence  ;  he  had  every  comfort  in 
his  home.  Had  it  been  otherwise  the  world  miorht 
have  been  so  much  the  poorer,  for  we  cannot 
conceive  how  it  would  have  been  possible  for  him 
to  struggle  at  one  and  the  same  time  against 
poverty  and  the  loss  of  sight.  The  fire  of  his 
genius  might  not  have  been  quenched,  but  his 
intellectual  training  would  in  all  likelihood  have 
had  to  be  sacrificed.  It  would  have  been  better 
perhaps  if  he  had  remained  a  year  longer  at 
school,  but  it  was  the  custom  then  to  enter  College 
at  a  comparatively  early  age.  He  more  than  made 
up  for  whatever  loss  he  may  have  sustained 
through  not  taking  the  last  year  at  Glasgow 
Academy  by   attending   for   nine   sessions   at   the 


32  STUDENT   DAYS 

University.  This  embraced  a  period  of  eight 
years  and  a  half,  and  during  that  time  the  eager 
student  subjected  himself  to  the  most  rigorous 
mental  discipline,  and  laid  the  foundation  of  his 
future  distinction. 

It  was  in  the   autumn   of   1857   that   he   first 
matriculated  as  a  student  of  Glasgow  University, 
and  enrolled  himself  in  the  classes  of  Junior  Latin 
and  Junior  Greek.     His  professors  were  William 
Ramsay   and    Edmund    Law    Lushington.     Even 
the  students  of  to-day  are  familiar  with  these  two 
names,    so   deep    a    mark    did   the    possessors   of 
them  make  on  the  University.     They  were  both 
eminent     scholars     and      distinguished     teachers. 
Matheson   was    only   fifteen   years    of  age   at    the 
time,   and   notwithstanding   that  for  the  study  of 
languages  the  heaviest  handicap  is  imperfect  eye- 
sight, he  gained  an  honourable  place  in  the  prize 
list  of  the  Latin  Class,  and  in  the  following  year 
as   a  Senior   Student  he  won  the  third  prize  for 
general    eminence.     One    of  my    earliest   recollec- 
tions   is    Matheson's   appearance,    during   his    first 
year   as    minister   of   Innellan,   at  the  annual    ex- 
amination of  the  school,  which  in  those  days  was 
conducted  by  the  Presbytery.      I   was   among  the 
few  scholars  who  had  been  prepared  by  the  teacher 
to  appear  for    the   Latin   examination,   and   I    re- 
member   distinctly    Matheson's    intervention    and 
correction    of    some    mistake    unchecked    by    the 
schoolmaster.     His  knowledge  of  the  ancient  lang- 
uage had  not  been  allowed  to  grow  rusty,  and  the 


STUDENT   DAYS  33 

impression  which  he  made  upon  the  pupils  of  the 
Parish  School  by  his  command  of  the  Latin  tongue 
on  this  memorable  occasion  was  perhaps  more 
profound  than  that  made  on  their  parents  by  his 
eloquent  preaching. 

It  was  in  the  Philosophical  Classes,  however, 
that  his  special  gifts  displayed  themselves  in  their 
full  power.  It  was  in  Session  1859-60  that  he 
became  a  student  in  the  Logic  Class  under  Pro- 
fessor Robert  Buchanan,  fondly  and  familiarly 
known  by  his  pupils  as  "  Logic  Bob."  Buchanan 
was  from  all  accounts  one  of  the  ablest  and  best 
teachers  that  Glasgow  University  ever  possessed. 
He  more  than  divided  the  honours  of  his  day  with 
William  Ramsay,  the  Professor  of  Humanity.  He 
was  a  minister  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  and  had 
filled  the  charge  of  Peebles  for  eleven  years  when 
he  was  appointed  assistant  and  successor  to  Mr. 
Jardine,  the  Professor  of  Logic  in  Glasgow 
University.  Buchanan  occupied  this  chair  from 
1827  to  1864,  when  he  resigned.  As  an  author 
he  cultivated  the  drama,  and  published,  among 
other  works,  Wallace:  A  Tragedy.  It  appeared 
in  1856,  and  six  years  later  it  was  performed  in 
one  of  the  theatres  in  Glasgow  by  a  number  of  the 
students  of  the  time.  Not  a  few  of  those  who 
received  instruction  at  his  hand  are  still  to  be  found 
in  Scottish  manses,  and,  without  exception,  they 
speak  with  the  highest  praise  of  his  ability  as  a 
teacher,  and  of  the  charm  of  his  character.  A 
fellow-student  of  Matheson's,  the  Rev.  Thomas 
3 


34  STUDENT   DAYS 

Carruthers,  minister  of  the  United  Free  Church 
at  Bridge  of  Weir,  and  himself  a  prizeman  in 
the  Loo-ic  Class,  gives  the  following  account  of 
Buchanan's  course  and  method  : — 

He   lectured    from   the   beginning   of  November   till 
Christmas  on  Psychology,  or,  as  it  was  called,  Metaphysics. 
He    treated    the    subject    like    Reid   in    his   Intellectual 
Powers.     The  lectures  were  not  influenced  by  Sir  William 
Hamilton    or    German    philosophers,   yet   so   great   was 
Buchanan's  fame  as  a  practical  teacher,  that  Sir  William 
Hamilton  sent  his  sons  to  study  under  him.     His  lectures 
were  exact  and  clear,  and  in  questioning  students  he  was 
very  sympathetic.     He  would  frequently  say  to  a  student 
who  answered  his  question  imperfectly,  "  Follow  up  that 
idea."     From   the   new   year   to   the   end   of    March   he 
lectured  on  Logic.     Most  of  the  time  was  spent  on  the 
deductive  logic  of  Aristotle,  but   the  inductive   logic  of 
Bacon  was  also  clearly  expounded.     No  students  could 
be    more     thoroughly    drilled    in    Terms,    Propositions, 
Syllogisms,  etc.,  than  those  who  studied  under  this  prince 
of  teachers.      At  the  close  of  the  session,  for  about   a 
fortnight,  he  gave  lectures  on   Rhetoric.      That  was  all 
the  teaching  Matheson  got  in  English  Literature,  for  the 
Chair   of  English    Literature,  with    Professor   Nichol    as 
occupant,  was  only  instituted  when  he  was  finishing  his 
Arts  Curriculum.     Though  he  became  so  eminent  as  an 
English    writer,    his    degree     did    not    include    English 
Literature;   but   the   orator,  like   the   poet,  is  born   not 
made. 

Buchanan's  influence  over  his  students  did  not 
depend  entirely  upon  his  lectures,  excellent  though 
they  were.  He  possessed  in  a  high  degree  the 
power  of  drawing  out  whatever  knowledge  the  stu- 
dents may  have  had,  by  his  method  of  oral  examina- 
tion. *'The  perfect  quiet  of  his  manner,"  remarks 
Professor  Stewart,   in  his    University  of  Glasgow ^ 


STUDENT   DAYS  35 

Old  and  New,  "  the  clearness  of  his  thinking 
and  expression,  and  the  occasional  rapier  thrust 
of  his  wit,  made  him  master  in  the  class-room 
without  effort ;  and  though  averse  to  original 
speculation,  he  had  a  wonderful  power  of  awaken- 
ing in  his  students  an  interest  in  the  problems 
of  intellectual  philosophy.  The  veneration  and 
gratitude  of  his  former  pupils,"  he  adds,  '*  have 
preserved  his  memory  to  succeeding  generations 
in  the  Buchanan  prizes,  which,  founded  in  1866, 
are  annually  awarded  to  the  most  distinguished 
students  in  the  classes  of  Logic,  Moral  Phil- 
osophy, and  English  Literature."  Distinction  in  the 
Philosophical  Classes  has  been  invariably  regarded 
by  Scottish  students  as  the  test  of  intellectual 
eminence.  However  successful  a  man  may  be 
in  Classics  or  Mathematics,  the  blue  riband  of 
the  University  is,  In  the  estimation  of  his  fellow- 
students,  gained  by  him  who  carries  off  the  chief 
prizes  in  Logic  and  Moral  Philosophy.  Glasgow 
University  has  from  the  days  of  John  Cameron 
been  noted  for  its  freedom  in  speculation,  and  for 
the  distinguished  men  who  have  occupied  its 
Philosophical  Chairs.  Among  them  have  been 
Gershom  Carmichael,  Francis  Hutcheson,  Adam 
Smith,  Thomas  Reld,  Robert  Buchanan,  and 
Edward  Caird.  It  may  be  said  that  it  was  when 
he  joined  the  Class  of  Logic  that  Matheson  ex- 
perienced his  first  real  intellectual  awakening.  He 
proved  himself  to  be  easily  head  and  shoulders 
above    every    competitor,    and   was    unanimously 


36  STUDENT   DAYS 

voted  by  his  fellow-students  the  first  prize  in  the 
Senior  Division  for  general  eminence,  and  a  like 
honour  was  conferred  on  him  by  his  professor  for  an 
essay  on  the  best  specimen  of  Socratic  Dialogue. 

Three  of  his  contemporaries,  who  have  favoured 
me  with  reminiscences  of  this  period  of  his  life, 
testify  to  the  strong  and  lasting  impression  which 
he  made  both  on  his  professor  and  class-fellows. 
He  shone  particularly  in  the  oral  examinations  and 
in  the  essays  set  by  the  professor  and  recited  to 
the  class  by  the  students  when  called  upon.  These 
essays,  which  formed  a  special  feature  of  the  work 
of  the  session,  did  not  occupy  more  than  eight 
minutes  in  their  delivery.  In  the  case  of  Matheson 
they  were  necessarily  committed  to  memory,  and 
the  command  of  English  style  which  he,  at  that 
early  age,  displayed,  together  with  his  inborn 
gifts  as  an  orator,  took  the  class  by  storm.  *'  My 
recollection  of  his  appearance,"  says  an  old  fellow- 
student, 

in  the  Logic  Class  in  1859-60  is  vivid.  He  was  far  and 
above  any  other  student.  I  often  made  up  to  him  on  the 
road  to  the  Old  College,  as  he  would  be  going  along 
George  Street  and  into  Albion  Street  and  College  Street. 
He  knew  one's  voice,  and  having  seized  his  arm  he  would 
say,  "Oh,  is  that  you,  Young?"  His  talk  was  always 
interesting,  nothing  pedantic ;  and  he  gave  a  most  hearty 
laugh  as  one  told  him  some  fresh  story  or  joke.  We  had 
as  students  to  stand  up  when  "  Logic  Bob "  would 
examine  us  orally.  Matheson  was  always  ready,  and 
never  appeared  to  be  without  an  answer.  His  memory 
was  magnificent.  More  than  once  he  recited  the  contents 
of  his  essay.  The  subject  on  one  occasion  was  the 
"  Association  of  Ideas  as  illustrated  by  Milton's  Paradise 


STUDENT   DAYS  37 

Lost,  First  Book,  *  Satan's  Palace  of  Pandemonium.' "  The 
professor  asked  Mr.  Matheson  to  give  his  essay,  which  he 
did,  and  he  held  the  class  spellbound  by  his  beautiful 
diction  and  eloquence.  He  excelled  in  imagery,  and  often 
borrowed  illustrations  from  nature.  The  class  broke  into 
frequent  applause.  At  the  end,  the  ruffing  of  the  feet 
was  so  great  that  the  dust  of  centuries  was  disturbed  and 
one  could  hardly  breathe.  The  professor  characterised 
the  essay  as  the  finest  he  had  listened  to  in  his  experience 
of  thirty  years,  and  then  pictured  the  various  famous  men 
who  had  sat  in  the  class-room.  One,  I  remember,  he 
referred  to  with  feelings  of  pride,  was  Archibald  Campbell 
Tait,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  who  had  sat  as  a  student 
in  bench  xvi.,  the  same,  I  think,  which  Matheson  occupied. 
He  made  various  complimentary  remarks,  and  wound  up 
by  prophesying  that,  if  health  were  given  to  him,  Matheson 
would  adorn  the  calling  to  which  he  aspired. 

Mr.  Carruthers,  v^ho  has  already  been  quoted, 
would  seem  to  have  been  impressed  by  another  of 
Matheson's  essays.  **  One  day,"  he  remarks, 
''  Matheson  v^as  called  upon  to  give  his  essay  on  the 
'  Acquired  Perceptions  of  Sight.'  He  did  not  read 
but  delivered  it  from  memory.  Tv^o  impressions 
in  that  oration  cling  to  me.  He  described  the 
babe  learning  to  distinguish  distance  by  Hght  and 
shade  as  the  'infant  philosopher,'  and  he  illustrated 
a  certain  point  by  saying,  '  You  do  not  despise  the 
rose  for  the  thorn  that  lurks  underneath.'  These 
expressions  showed  the  boy,  at  College,  to  have 
been  father  to  the  man,  in  the  pulpit." 

It  was,  however,  on  the  closing  days  of  the 
College,  when  Buchanan,  according  to  custom, 
invited  his  students  to  engage  in  a  great  debate, 
that  Matheson  made  his  most  brilliant  appearance. 


38  STUDENT  DAYS 

*' A  charming  April  day,"  writes  the  Rev.  Thomas 
Gordon,  minister  at  Edgerston, 

in  the  session  which  extended  from  November  1859  to 
the  Kalends  of  May  i860,  rises  to  my  recollection,  as  we 
came  down  to  the  Logic  Class  in  the  mediaeval  Quadrangle 
of  the  Old  College  in  the  High  Street,  where  Robert 
Buchanan  gave  students  their  first  lesson  in  Logic  and 
Rhetoric.  The  professor  had  prescribed  an  oration  to 
last  no  more  than  eight  minutes.  Each  student  was  to 
come  prepared  to  take  his  place,  if  called  on,  in  the 
arranged  discussion,  which  was  to  be  carried  over  two  or 
three  days.  The  subject  was  an  imaginary  debate  in  the 
Canadian  Senate  as  to  whether  "  Canada  being  now 
ready  for  a  Constitution,  ought  that  Constitution  to  be  a 
Limited  Monarchy,  with  one  of  the  sons  of  the  British 
monarch  as  sovereign,  or  ought  it  to  be  a  Republic  ?  "  As 
a  Junior  Student  I  remember  having  taken  the  Republican's 
side,  and  was  thereby  perhaps  all  the  more  forcibly 
impressed  by  the  oration  of  Matheson,  who  took  the 
opposite  side.  He  charmed  his  professor,  and  carried 
away  his  youthful  audience  until  we  almost  seemed  to 
forget  where  we  were.  When  the  deafening  rounds  of 
applause  had  ceased,  Buchanan  said  :  "  Your  oration,  Mr. 
Matheson,  is  not  only  creditable  to  yourself,  but  it  is  an 
honour  to  the  class  of  which  you  are  a  member " ;  and 
turning  to  the  class,  he  said  :  "  I  do  not  wonder  you  are 
pleased  with  that,  Gentlemen." 

This  essay  still  remains  in  the  original  form  in 
which  it  was  written.  The  paper  is  of  the  finest 
quality,  with  the  leaves  tied  together  with  a  blue 
ribbon.  It  bears  the  title,  "  Oration  delivered  in 
the  Logic  Class  on  Friday  21st  April  i860," 
and  is  signed  "  George  Matheson."  Mr.  Gordon 
quotes  a  part  of  it  with  wonderful  accuracy.  We 
shall  give  an  extract  from  the  manuscript  itself, 
as  a  specimen  of  the  young  orator's  method.     One 


STUDENT   DAYS  39 

can  well  understand,  on  reading  it,  how,  when 
delivered  with  all  the  fire  and  enthusiasm  of 
which  Matheson  was  capable,  it  left  so  indelible 
an  impression  on  his  audience  : 

It  has  been  said,  Gentlemen,  that  the  word  Republic 
means  fraternity,  but  ask  history  in  what  Republic 
fraternity  is  to  be  found  ?  Ask  the  United  States,  and 
the  chains  of  three  million  slaves  shall  answer:  Not 
here !  Ask  the  France  of  last  century,  and  the  Reign 
of  Terror  will  respond :  Not  here  !  Ask  the  Florence  of 
the  Middle  Ages,  and  the  wandering  Dante  shall  respond : 
Not  here !  Ask  ancient  Rome,  and  the  exiled  Scipio 
shall  respond  :  Not  here  !  Ask  Carthage,  and  the  banished 
Hannibal  shall  respond  :  Not  here  !  Ask  Athens,  and  the 
dying  Socrates  shall  respond :  Not  here !  It  has  been 
said,  Gentlemen,  that  the  word  Republic  means  liberty. 
It  may  be  so,  but  it  is  the  liberty  of  the  planet  that 
has  broken  loose  from  its  centrifugal  force  and  is  rush- 
ing on  through  space  into  annihilation.  It  is  the  liberty 
of  the  mind  that  has  burst  the  restraints  of  freedom  and 
is  borne  along  to  ruin  by  a  current  of  angry  and  con- 
tending passions.  It  is  the  liberty  of  the  ship  that  has 
lost  its  rudder  and  is  drifting  with  the  winds  and  the 
waves  to  destruction.  It  has  been  said.  Gentlemen,  that 
the  word  Republic  means  equality.  But  I  say  that  the 
constitutional  monarchy  is  the  only  sphere  of  true 
equality.  There  is  not  a  citizen  of  Britain  this  day 
who  cannot  stand  up  and  proclaim  himself  an  equal 
part  of  its  Government,  an  indispensable  item  of  its 
Constitution.  If  the  King  have  a  sovereign  power  to 
act,  it  is  from  the  community  that  this  power  emanates. 
If  there  is  boundless  wealth  at  the  disposal  of  royalty, 
it  is  the  community  that  furnishes  it. 

Matheson's  other  chief  success  in  the  Logic 
Class,  and  perhaps  his  most  remarkable  one,  was 
his  specimen  of  the  Socratic  Dialogue  on  a  subject 
set   by   Buchanan:    "The    Volunteer   Movement: 


40  STUDENT   DAYS 

Ought  Britain  to  Arm?"  His  essay  was  awarded 
the  first  prize.  It  took  the  form  of  a  Dialogue 
between  Mr.  Disraeli  and  Mr.  Bright,  and  is  pre- 
faced by  the  following  Explanatory  Note  : — "  It 
is  here  presumed  that  Mr.  Disraeli,  being  aware 
that  Mr.  Bright  is  opposed  to  the  Volunteer 
System,  and  being  also  conscious  of  certain  very 
sensible  opinions  entertained  by  that  gentleman, 
draws  him  out  for  the  purpose  of  refuting  him 
by  his  own  sentiments,  and  touches  such  springs 
of  thouofht  as  are  calculated  to  elicit  a  declaration 
of  them."  This  essay  is  much  more  matured  in 
thought  than  the  speech  in  support  of  a  monarchical 
form  of  government  for  Canada,  and  more  chaste 
and  moderate  in  expression.  Taking  the  two 
together  we  find  in  Matheson  the  born  artist. 
He  adapted  both  his  matter  and  manner  to  his 
subject  and  audience.  He  carried  away  his 
youthful  hearers  by  an  oration  set  on  a  key 
suited  to  their  eager  spirits,  and  in  the  dialogue 
he  reasoned  out  his  thesis  in  a  way  to  enlist  the 
sympathy  and  to  secure  the  approval  of  his  learned 
professor.  It  is  a  capital  specimen  of  the  Socratic 
method,  as  the  two  following  extracts  will  show. 
Bright  had  declared,  in  reply  to  Disraeli,  that  a 
well-regulated  imagination  is  the  most  useful  of 
all  our  intellectual  powers,  mainly  for  the  reason 
that  it  develops  a  most  commendable  self-esteem. 
This  thought  is  elaborated  as  follows  : 

There  are  individuals  of  the  race  of  Adam  who  have 
never  known  themselves ;   to  whom   praise  and  censure. 


STUDENT   DAYS  41 

honour  and  disgrace,  exalted  excellence  and  moral  de- 
gradation, are  terms  as  insignificant  as  colours  to  the 
blind.  Born  in  a  low  sphere,  breathing  from  childhood 
a  pestilential  vapour,  and  looking  around  them  upon 
nothing  but  squalidity  and  beggary,  these  wretched  out- 
casts of  society  have,  from  the  earliest  dawn  of  reason, 
learned  to  loathe  themselves.  To  them  the  word  man 
is  associated  only  with  certain  physical  peculiarities, 
but  the  ideas  of  rationality,  of  nobility,  of  grandeur  and 
progress,  have  never  once  been  annexed  to  it.  Famine 
has  hunted  them  down ;  the  higher  and  middle  classes 
have  ignored  their  existence,  and  they  have  always  im- 
agined the  commission  of  crime  to  be  their  vocation. 
And  yet  how  little  has  been  achieved  by  the  contempt 
of  their  superiors.  They  still  swarm  in  our  streets,  crowd 
our  highways,  and  infect  our  very  atmosphere.  But 
could  you  by  any  language  convey  to  these  miscreants 
a  definition  of  the  human  mind,  could  you  make  them 
know,  not  the  nature  of  legal  punishment,  but  the  latent 
good  in  their  own  natures,  I  am  convinced  you  would 
effect  more  than  all  the  proscriptions,  ignominy,  and  scorn, 
which  have  for  ages  been  heaped  upon  them  by  a 
censorious  public. 

Disraeli  all  through  contented  himself  by  put- 
ting questions  to  Bright  which  would  elicit  the 
very  answers  that  he  desired  ;  and  after  having  got 
the  *'  tribune  of  the  people,"  as  he  called  him,  com- 
mitted to  certain  propositions,  he  turned  the  tables 
upon  him,  and  wound  up  the  dialogue  as  follows  : 

Enough,  Mr.  Bright.  I  was  previously  made  cognisant 
that  such  were  the  sentiments  entertained  by  you,  but  I 
wished  to  elicit  them  from  your  own  lips.  And  how,  then, 
can  you,  who  hold  such  manly  principles,  reconcile  them 
with  your  opposition  to  the  Volunteer  System  ?  If  I  ever 
had  any  doubts  on  the  subject,  your  conclusive  reasoning 
would  have  convinced  me  that  it  is  a  social,  moral,  and 
commercial  good.     You  have  admitted  the  frequency  of 


42  STUDENT  DAYS 

crime  amongst  the  lower  classes,  and  you  have  held  that 
nothing  can  tend  so  much  to  eradicate  it  as  a  conviction 
of  self-dignity,  importance,  duty,  and  responsibility.     The 
country  has  acted  up   to   your  wise   suggestion.      It   is 
about  to  put  arms  into  the  hands  of  the  artisans  and  the 
working  populace,  to  let  them  feel  that  they  are  citizens 
of  the  land  and  bound  to  protect  its  rights  and  privileges. 
Inasmuch,  then,  as  this  is  an  elevation  of  honest  pride, 
and  consequently  a  comparative  restraint  from  the  com- 
mission of  enormities,  you  must  admit  it  is  a  legitimate 
inference,  from  your  own  premises,  to  be  a  social  good. 
Again,  you  have  stated  that  the  poor  are  held  in  contempt 
by  the  rich,  and  you  have  affirmed  that  the  best  allevia- 
tion of  this  contempt  would  be  the  mutual  dependence  of 
all  ranks.     Once  more,  Mr.  Bright,  has  the  country  acted 
on  your  suggestion,  for  by  putting  weapons  into  the  hands 
of  the  populace  she  is  about  to  make  the  middle  classes 
feel  that  they  are  in  a  measure  indebted  for  their  safety 
and  their  prosperity  to  the  brawny  arms  and  the  dauntless 
hearts  of  the  sons  of  toil.     Nay,  more,  you  have  said  that 
the  secret  of  all  security  is  confidence  in  our  own  strength, 
and  that  the  absence  of  this  confidence  engenders  jealous 
anxieties.     Inasmuch,  then,  as  it  is  the  cure  of  pride,  and 
the    promoter    of    tranquillity,   you    have    admitted   the 
Volunteer  System  to  be  a  moral  good.     And,  finally,  you 
have  affirmed  that  the  true  cause  of  flourishing  trade  in 
France   during   the   Napoleonic   struggles  was   the   con- 
sciousness of  impregnability.     Our  land  has  been  recently 
visited  with  severe  commercial  panics  ;  at  every  breath  of 
war  the  funds  have  fallen  fifty  millions  in  a  day.     But 
you,  Sir,  have  pointed  out  a  remedy:  Let  us  be  impregnable, 
you  say,  and  not  tossed  about  at  the  mercy  of  every  wind. 
A  third  time,  Mr.  Bright,  has  the  country  acted  on  your 
suggestion,  and  it  only  remains  for  experience  to  prove 
the  justice   of   your    reasoning   when   you   desire   social 
comforts,  moral  benefits,  and  mercantile  advantages  from 
the  Volunteer  Movement. 

The    closing    day   of   the   session,    v^hen    the 
professors,  students,  and  their  friends  were  present 


STUDENT  DAYS  43 

in  the  Common  Hall  at  the  distribution  of  prizes, 
took  place  on  May  Day,  and  the  scene  is  thus 
described  in  Hamilton's  romance  of  Cyril 
Thornton  : 

The  first  of  May  is  the  day  fixed  by  immemorial 
usage  in  the  University  for  the  distribution  of  the  prizes, 
a  day  looked  forward  to  with  "  hopes  and  fears  that  kindle 
hope "  by  many  youthful  and  ardent  spirits.  The  Great 
Hall  of  the  College  on  that  day  certainly  presents  a  very 
pleasing  and  animated  spectacle.  The  academical  dis- 
tinctions are  bestowed  with  much  of  ceremonial  pomp,  in 
the  presence  of  a  vast  concourse  of  spectators,  and  it  is 
not  uninteresting  to  mark  the  flush  of  bashful  triumph  on 
the  cheek  of  the  victor,  the  sparkling  of  his  downcast  eye 
as  the  Hall  is  rent  with  loud  applause  when  he  advances 
to  receive  the  badge  of  honour  assigned  him  by  the  voice 
of  his  fellow-students.  It  is  altogether  a  sight  to  stir  the 
spirit  in  the  youthful  bosom,  and  stimulate  into  healthy 
action  faculties  which  but  for  such  excitement  might  have 
continued  in  unbroken  slumber. 

Matheson,  on  going  up  to  receive  his  prizes,  met 
with  a  perfect  ovation,  which  was  heightened  by 
the  memorable  eulogium  passed  upon  him  by 
Professor  Buchanan,  The  wild  assemblage  was 
hushed  as  his  aged  teacher  quoted  with  deep 
emotion  Milton's  famous  lines  on  his  own  blind- 
ness, comparing  the  youthful  scholar  to  **  Blind 
Thamyris  and  blind  Maeonides  "  : 

Those  other  two  equalled  with  me  in  Fate, 
So  were  I  equalled  with  them  in  renown. 

This  was  the  red-letter  day  in  Matheson  s  career 
as  a  student.  He  met  with  equal  distinction  the 
following  year  in  the  Moral  Philosophy  Class,  in 


44  STUDENT   DAYS 

which  he  took  the  first  prize  ;  but  the  Professor, 
Dr.  William  Fleming,  was  not  the  equal  of  his 
colleague  Robert  Buchanan.  He  was  incapable 
of  creatine:  the  same  interest  in  the  work  of  his 
class,  and  the  students  treated  him  with  an  easy- 
tolerance.  Matheson  graduated  B.A.  in  1861,  the 
last  occasion  on  which  this  deo^ree  was  orranted  with 
''  Honourable  Distinction  in  Philosophy,"  and  M.A. 
in  1862.  His  Arts  Course  was  now  finished,  and 
in  the  same  year  he  entered  as  a  student  in  the 
Divinity  Hall. 

This  was  John  Calrd's  first  year  as  Professor 
of  Divinity,  and  by  him  a  fresh  direction  was  given, 
and  a  new  spirit  imparted,  to  the  teaching  of 
Theology  in  Glasgow  University.  The  Divinity 
Faculty  was  strengthened  at  this  time  by  the 
founding  of  the  Chair  of  Biblical  Criticism  ;  its  first 
holder  being  Professor  Dickson,  a  ripe  scholar, 
whose  wide  and  accurate  erudition  was  the  marvel 
of  succeeding  generations  of  students.  He  was 
admired  for  his  knowledge,  and  beloved  for  his 
kind  heart.  Dr.  Duncan  Weir  was  the  Professor 
of  Hebrew  and  Oriental  Languages.  He  was  a 
born  teacher,  and  although  he  published  little  his 
opinion  was  frequently  sought  by  workers  in  his 
subject,  and  greatly  valued.  He  combined  with 
his  duties  as  Professor  those  of  Clerk  of  Senate. 
This  was  perhaps  necessary,  for  it  enabled  him  to 
add  to  the  salary  of  his  chair,  which  at  that  time 
was  modest  in  the  extreme.  Dr.  Thomas  Jackson 
was  the  Professor  of  Church  History.     He  taught 


STUDENT   DAYS  45 

his  subject  on  philosophical  principles,  but  very- 
few  had  the  patience  to  understand  what  they  were  ; 
and  the  hour  spent  in  his  class  was  more  frequently 
given  to  wild  frolic  than  to  serious  study. 

Caird  was  the  man  who  at  that  time  riveted  the 
attention  of  the  students.  He  came  with  a  great 
reputation  as  a  popular  preacher,  and  he  had  already- 
given  one  or  two  indications  that  he  did  not  intend 
to  be  bound  by  the  traditional  methods  of  his  chair. 
He  succeeded  Professor  Hill,  who  practically  repro- 
duced his  father's,  Principal  Hill's,  lectures,  and 
anyone  who  wishes  to  know  the  kind  of  teaching 
that  for  several  generations  prevailed  in  the 
Divinity  Faculties  of  the  Scottish  Universities 
will  find  it  embodied  in  the  Principal  of  St. 
Andrews'  published  volumes.  There  he  will  find 
the  high-water  mark  of  Scottish  theology  previous 
to  the  new  trend  given  to  it  by  contact  with  the 
speculative  theories  of  German  philosophy.  Caird 
while  at  Errol,  and  afterwards  as  minister  of  the 
Park  Church,  Glasgow,  had  been  turning  his  mind 
towards  the  new  light  that  was  shining  from  the 
Continent.  He  had  been  gradually  working  his 
way  into  the  speculative  ideas  of  the  great  German 
thinkers.  He  was  bea-innino^  to  be  infiuenced 
by  Hegel,  and  after  a  time  he  accepted  him 
as  his  master,  and  was  in  the  habit  of  humbly 
regarding  himself  as  his  interpreter.  There  can 
be  no  doubt  that  the  Hegelian  method  has  a 
wonderful  fascination ;  it  charms,  especially  the 
youthful  mind  ;  and  in  a  few  years  afterwards,  when 


46  STUDENT   DAYS 

Caird's  brother,  Edward,  subsequently  Master  of 
Balliol  College,  Oxford,  became  Professor  of  Moral 
Philosophy  in  Glasgow  University,  the  spirit  of 
Hegel  dominated  the  whole  place,  for  Edward 
Caird  had  no  rival  as  an  exponent  of  the  Hegelian 
philosophy,  and  his  eloquence  of  thought  impressed 
the  students  quite  as  much  as  his  more  famous 
brother's  eloquence  of  speech. 

If  there  be  any  virtue,  and  if  there  be  any 
praise  in  this  speculative  standpoint,  then  George 
Matheson  was  John  Caird's  debtor.  It  is  almost 
certain,  however,  that  an  eager  mind  like  his  would 
have  discovered  the  Hegelian  philosophy  for  itself. 
The  great  writers  of  the  day  were  busy  disseminat- 
ing German  ideas.  Carlyle,  and  Coleridge  before 
him,  had  done  their  part,  and  there  were  other 
workers  in  the  field.  In  any  case  the  first  period  of 
Matheson's  life  as  a  writer  was  strongly  influenced 
by  the  spirit  and  method  of  Hegel.  He  came 
afterwards  to  doubt  the  absolutism  of  the  system. 
*'  Facts  are  chiels  that  winna  ding,"  and  however 
attractive  the  rhythm  of  the  Hegelian  philosophy 
may  have  been  to  a  poetic  mind  like  his,  he,  like 
many  others,  found  that  there  are  ''more  things  in 
heaven  and  earth  "  than  were  dreamt  of  even  by 
the  great  Teutonic  thinker. 

Matheson  had  as  contemporaries  in  the  Divinity 
Hall  not  a  few  who  afterwards  rose  to  distinction 
in  the  Church.  They  must  have  been  a  very  able 
set  of  students.  Among  the  prizemen  of  his  year 
were    Matheson    himself,    Professor    Stewart    of 


STUDENT   DAYS  47 

Glasgow  University;  Rev.  Dr.  M'Lean,  St. 
Columba's,  Glasgow ;  Rev.  Dr.  Blair,  St.  John's, 
Edinburgh ;  Rev.  Robert  Thomson,  Rubislaw, 
Aberdeen ;  and  the  Rev.  Dr.  D.  M.  Gordon, 
Principal  of  Queen's  University,  Kingston,  Canada. 
One  of  them,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Thomson  of  Aberdeen, 
who  was  afterwards,  when  minister  of  Rothesay, 
Matheson's  co- Presbyter,  has  favoured  me  with  the 
following  reminiscences  of  him  when  a  student  in 
the  Divinity  Hall : — 

Among  the  students  of  my  time  at  the  Glasgow 
Divinity  Hall,  no  one  stands  out  m.ore  prominently  in 
the  retrospect  than  George  Matheson.  It  would  be 
about  as  difficult  to  recall  the  professors  without  thinking 
of  Dr.  Caird,  as  to  recall  the  students  without  thinking  of 
Matheson.  Not  only  was  he  a  distinguished  student  in 
the  sense  of  taking  prizes, — others  were  distinguished  in 
the  same  way  who  have  left  no  abiding  impression  on  the 
memory, — his  distinction  lay  in  the  uniqueness  of  his 
personality.  Students  have  their  groups  and  coteries,  but 
you  could  hardly  rank  him  with  any  of  these.  He  was 
quite  unlike  the  rank  and  file,  quite  unlike  the  ordinary 
prizeman.  There  was  a  something  that  marked  him  off 
from  all  the  others.  It  is  difficult  to  say  precisely  in 
what  this  uniqueness  consisted  ;  many  things  probably 
were  contributory.  One  of  its  obvious  features  was  an 
unmistakable  exuberance  of  emotional  and  intellectual 
life.  His  laughter  was  the  biggest  and  heartiest  in  the 
College  quadrangle,  being  equalled,  however,  by  his 
tenderness  and  sensibility.  One  was  not  surprised  at  any 
flight  of  eloquence  in  which  he  might  indulge,  or  indeed 
at  any  intellectual  exploits  ever  so  far  remote  from  the 
conventional  routine.  That  a  sober-minded  professor 
should  attempt  to  keep  him  within  bounds  suggested,  in 
a  small  way,  an  attempt  to  harness  Pegasus.  When,  on 
a  certain  occasion,  word  was  passed  round  that  a  poem 
by   Matheson    was    actually   published    in    one    of   the 


48  STUDENT   DAYS 

magazines— the  Sunday  Magazine,  if  I  mistake  not— no 
one  was  surprised.     That  he  should  write  a  poem,  and 
have  it  accepted  and  published  by  a  recognised  magazine, 
so  far  from  being  incredible,  seemed  in  his  case  the  most 
natural  thing  in  the  world,  and  quite  in  keeping  with  all 
we  knew  of  him.     Though  he  was  undoubtedly  ambitious, 
in  the  best  sense,  he  never  sought  to  gratify  his  ambition 
at  the  expense  of  others  ;  however  conspicuous  his  success, 
no  feeling  of  jealousy  was  left  behind  in  the  breasts  of 
any  of  his  fellow-students.     Theirs  rather  was  a  just  pride 
in  the  exploits  of  their  gifted  class-fellow ;  everyone  had 
a  share  in  the  reflected  glory  that  fell   on  the  class  of 
which  he  was  a  member,  and  on  the  whole  Divinity  Hall. 
He  was,  of  course,  as  we  all  were,  fortunate  in  his 
professors.     One  and  all,  they  were  eminently  qualified  to 
act  as  guides.     Those  were  the  days  when  we  sat  spell- 
bound  under  the  vivid    and   inspiring   teaching   of  Dr. 
Caird,  then  newly  appointed  to  the  Divinity  Chair.     We 
students  felt  ourselves  of  no  small  importance  when  the 
appointment  was  made,  and  we  realised  that  the  great 
preacher    who    drew    enormous    crowds    Sunday    after 
Sunday  to  the  Park  Church,  among  which  every  Divinity 
student,  I  suppose,  squeezed  his  way  inside  the  doors,  was 
now  to  be  our  very  own,  and  that  we  should  have  him  all 
to  ourselves.     Great  things  certainly  were  expected,  and 
we   were    not    disappointed.      The    teaching    itself   was 
supremely   instructive.      The    methods    of    the    modern 
science   of  history  were   brought   to   bear   on   theology. 
The  best  things  in  Schleiermacher  and  Hegel  shed  fresh 
light    on    eighteenth-century   maxims.      In    Dr.    Caird's 
luminous  presentation,  theology  seemed  to  us  a  veritable 
Queen  among  the  Sciences.     Even  more  than  the  matter 
of  the  teaching  was  the  manner  of  it.     Earnestness  and 
fervour  were  always  present ;  so  also  the  spirit  of  reverence, 
"  the  angel  of  the  world,"  against  which  did  the  audacity 
of   even    the    most    brilliant   student    transgress    in    the 
slightest  measure,  prompt  suppression  followed.     Above 
all    there  was   the   supremacy  of  Christ,  "  of   Him,  and 
through  Him,  and  to  Him,  are  all  things,"  in  the  forefront 
of  all  Dr.  Caird's  teaching.     That  One  was  their  Master, 


STUDENT   DAYS  49 

even  Christ,  was  burned  into  the  minds  of  the  students 
with  a  power  which  they  can  never  forget. 

The  influence  of  such  a  teacher  on  a  nature  so  sensitive 
and  high-strung  as  that  of  Matheson,  everyone  can  see. 
Matheson  used  to  Hsten  with  rapt  attention  to  the  fervid 
eloquence  of  his  teacher,  drinking  it  in  with  avidity,  and 
silently  assimilating  it.  So  thorough  was  the  assimilation 
that  long  years  afterwards,  when  listening  to  Dr.  Matheson 
at  the  height  of  his  fame,  and  in  his  most  original  excur- 
sions, one  seemed  now  and  again  to  hear  faint  echoes  of 
the  old  teaching  which  had  been  our  inspiration  in  the 
Divinity  class-room. 

It  so  happened  that  during  Dr.  Matheson's  ministry  at 
Innellan  he  and  I  were  co-Presbyters.  It  was  hardly  to 
be  expected  that  he  should  attend  meetings  of  Presbytery, 
nor  do  I  remember  ever  to  have  seen  him  present.  It 
was  well  known  that  he  was  engaged  in  systematic  study. 
His  co-Presbyters  understood  that  he  was  simply  biding 
his  time,  and  that  in  due  course  he  would  emerge  from 
the  seclusion  of  Innellan  and  fill  a  wider  sphere — a  forecast 
which  the  event  amply  justified. 

I  have  received  the  following  account  of 
Matheson's  first  sermon  from  one  of  his  fellow- 
students,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Somerville,  of  Blackfriars 
Parish,  Glasgow.  The  discourse  was  delivered 
while  he  was  still  in  the  Divinity  Hall,  and  the 
account  is  so  interesting  that  I  have  great  pleasure 
in  giving  it  in  full  : 

In  our  day  we  had  to  prepare  in  the  first  session  of 
our  Divinity  Hall  course  the  Homily,  a  discourse  on  a 
text  given  out  by  the  professor.  And  no  sooner  had  we 
finished  the  Homily,  and  rehearsed  it  before  our  teacher 
and  our  fellow-students,  receiving  his  criticism  in  public 
and  their  observations  in  private,  than  we  looked  round 
for  a  suitable  place  of  worship  in  which  to  deliver  it. 
Matheson,  like  the  rest  of  us,  was  desirous  to  let  his  light 
shine.     The  opportunity  came  when  he  was  in  his  second 

4 


50  STUDENT   DAYS 

session  ;  his  friend  David  Strong,  now  the  Rev.  Dr.  Strong, 
of  Hillhead  Parish,  Glasgow,  was  then  acting  as  College 
Missionary,  and  it  was  his  duty  to  have  evening  service  in 
the  Parish  schoolroom  of  the  College  Church  in  High 
Street,  of  which  I  became  in  later  years  the  minister.  He 
had  occasion  to  be  away,  and  he  asked  Matheson  to  take 
his  place.  It  was  also  the  custom  for  the  associates  of 
each  student  to  go  in  a  body  to  judge  of  their  friend's 
effort. 

Matheson  duly  intimated  to  the  fraternity  the  coming 
event,  and  we  turned  out  in  full  force  to  hear  him.  We 
expected  the  Homily  which  had  been  delivered  in  the 
Hall,  but  we  did  not  get  it.  Matheson  had  made  special 
preparation,  and  had  chosen  as  his  theme  the  text 
"  Precious  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord  is  the  death  of  His 
saints."  Young  as  he  was,  and  young  as  I  was,  I  have 
never  forgotten  the  sermon.  It  had  the  freshness  and 
originality  that  were  characteristic  of  him  in  the  after  days. 
Darwin's  book  on  Evolution  had  been  published  a  short 
time  before,  and  Matheson's  sermon  instead  of  rehearsing, 
after  the  stereotyped  fashion,  the  joys  of  the  believer,  and 
the  victory  in  the  last  act,  was  upon  spiritual  evolution. 
Death  is  the  gate  to  a  larger  sphere  and  a  higher  service. 
One  of  his  illustrations  was  so  vivid  that  I  have  never  for- 
gotten it.  "  Death  is  the  gate  to  higher  work  and  purer 
joys.  Here  on  earth  everything  ripens  except  man.  The 
fruits  ripen  every  year.  A  longer  season  would  make 
them  no  bigger  and  no  better,  but  what  man  ever  came  to 
full  maturity.  Even  in  the  most  saintly  there  are  faculties 
not  fully  developed,  affections  not  applied  to  the  highest 
objects.  Are  these  never  to  ripen  or  to  do  their  highest 
work  ?  Is  there  no  sphere  where  the  good  and  the  gifted 
shall  come  to  the  perfection  of  their  full  power?  The 
saints,  as  we  term  them,  those  who  have  grown  in  grace 
and  knowledge,  are  as  the  plants  of  promise  removed  by 
death  from  this  cold  world  to  another,  more  congenial,  in 
which  they  will  grow  in  beauty  and  in  strength,  and  find 
sweet  exercise  for  each  function.  Life,  long  or  short,  is  but 
a  waiting  to  be  born  into  a  higher  sphere,  and  death  is 
the  birth-angel." 


STUDENT   DAYS  51 

I  can  only  say  that  if  before  we  had  thought  that 
Matheson  would  be  a  great  poet,  but  would  not  be  a  great 
preacher,  because  of  his  physical  defect,  we  were  converted 
to  a  different  view.  We  went  to  criticise,  but  we  returned 
deeply  impressed.  *'  Yes,'^  said  one  now  gone  to  his  rest, 
"  George  is  to  be  the  Caird  of  the  next  generation." 

The  sermon  still  remains  among  Matheson  s  papers, 
and  its  theme  was  the  burden  of  his  thought  to 
the  end. 


CHAPTER    III 
RECESS   STUDIES 

George  Matheson  was  a  thoroughly  representa- 
tive student.  He  was  not  a  mere  bookworm  who 
confined  himself  constantly  to  his  desk  and  refused 
to  take  part  in  the  social  side  of  University  life. 
He  had  a  big  heart,  and  felt  in  sympathy  with 
everything  human,  even  with  those  animal  spirits 
which  now  and  again  broke  forth.  They,  too, 
served  their  purpose  ;  they  prevented  the  youthful 
competitors  who  strove  for  class  honours  from 
having  their  friendship  broken  by  too  keen  a 
rivalry,  or- from  degenerating  into  mere  ''intellec- 
tuals." Both  at  home  and  at  College  he  entered 
fully  into  the  side  interests  of  life,  and  no  one 
enjoyed  more  than  he  the  pleasures  of  poetry, 
of  music,  of  literature  and  society.  "  When  a 
student,"  writes  his  brother,  "he  was  very  fond  of 
hearing  a  good  play  in  the  theatre,  and  when  a 
distinguished  Shakesperian  actor  like  Vandenhoff 
came  to  Glasgow  he  never  missed  the  opportunity. 
Music  was  one  of  his  favourite  pastimes,  and  many 
a  night  saw  him  at  the  opera  when  the  great  stars, 

52 


RECESS   STUDIES  53 

TItiens,  Giuglini,  Grisi,  Santley,  and  others,  were 
in  the  ascendant.  His  school-friend,  Mr.  James 
Hotson,  whom  we  have  already  quoted,  gives  the 
following  reminiscences  of  this  period  of  his  life 
and  of  this  phase  of  his  character  : — 

Meanwhile,  and  after  he  had  gone  to  College,  I  saw  a 
good  deal  of  him  in  private  life.  My  father  had  a  pretty 
large  library,  and  I  frequently  read  to  Matheson  or  talked 
with  him  of  books  and  kindred  subjects  when  he  came 
down  to  smoke  with  me.  Byron  was  our  first  idol.  Later 
on  we  came  to  prefer  others,  such  as  Wordsworth,  Tenny- 
son, and  Longfellow.  Matheson  would  recite  pieces  from 
these  authors  with  great  expression.  In  particular  I  can 
recall  "  Tears,  Idle  Tears,"  portions  of  In  Memoriam^  and 
the  "  Ode  on  Immortality,"  as  also  the  closing  stanzas  of 
Evangeline.  Among  novelists  we  ranked  Bulwer  Lytton 
high  above  either  Dickens  or  Thackeray.  This  was,  I 
remember,  owing  to  his  wide  range  of  subjects,  his 
scholarship,  and  the  philosophical  trend  of  a  number  of  his 
novels.  I  remember  one  evening  we  were  expressing  our 
views  to  this  effect  when  my  late  brother  William  struck 
in  and  maintained  that  there  was  nothing  in  all  Bulwer 
to  equal  Pickwick,  He  also  enjoyed  humorous  writers. 
I  remember  how  hugely  tickled  he  was  with  the  student's 
"  Fox  Song "  in  Longfellow's  Hyperion,  with  its  "  Sa, 
Sa,  Leathery  Fox."  Our  final  favourite  was  Carlyle,  to 
whom  Matheson  took  from  the  very  first  reading.  He 
became  so  familiarised  with  the  Carlylese  style  that  one 
evening  at  a  meeting  of  a  literary  society,  criticising  an 
essay  which  had  just  been  read,  he  remarked  that  the 
essayist  appeared  to  have  had  Carlyle  in  view  as  a  model. 
This  society  would  probably  be  "  The  Clifton  Literary," 
which  met  weekly  in  the  smallest  of  the  Queen's  Rooms. 
It  was  started  by  a  number  of  Academy  boys  who  had 
just  left  school  and  gone  into  offices,  and  our  patron  was 
no  less  a  personage  than  Dr.  Pritchard,  afterwards  the 
celebrated  poisoner.  Even  then,  from  the  "  Munchausen  " 
flavour  of  some  of  his  adventures,  as  he  related  them,  we 


54  RECESS  STUDIES 

began  to  "  smoke  "  him.  After  he  had  made  his  exit  from 
the  world  no  successor  was  appointed.  It  would  have 
been  awkward  to  have  had  to  minute  that  "So-and-so 
was  elected  as  patron,  vice  Dr.  Pritchard  suspended^ 

My  late  brother  William  was  a  law  student  while 
Matheson  was  in  Divinity,  and,  it  being  election  time, 
they  became  in  some  measure  associated,  both  belonging 
to  the  Conservative  side.  The  Conservative  candidate 
for  the  Lord  Rectorship  was  Lord  Glencorse  (Inglis),  and 
his  opponent  was  the  Lord  Advocate  (MoncreifQ.  There 
was  great  enthusiasm  among  the  students,  and  Matheson 
became  a  very  popular  speaker  among  his  party.  I 
remember  of  him  being  present  at  a  small  gathering  of 
young  folks  at  our  house  one  evening,  when  William  and 
another  student,  John  Eraser,  came  in,  and  said  there 
had  been  a  great  meeting  of  students,  and  Matheson  had 
been  loudly  clamoured  for.  A  verse  of  one  of  the 
election  songs  ran — 

Confound  the  Radicals  in  a  heap, 

Hurrah,  Hurrah ! 
Their  candidate  to  pot  we'll  sweep, 

Hurrah,  Hurrah  ! 
But  prosper  every  bonnet  blue. 
And  Johnny  Inglis  our  Rector  new. 

The  prophecy  of  the  song  came  true,  Inglis  was  elected. 

Matheson  always  seemed  to  enjoy  life  thoroughly  and 
to  take  an  interest  in  all  that  was  going  on.  He  once 
remarked  to  me,  "  I  don't  know  how  it  may  be  with  you 
people,  but  we  of  the  Establishment  see  life  whole,  and  as 
a  consequence,  I  think,  more  truly."  This  philosophic, 
and  indeed  religious,  standpoint  conditioned  his  outlook, 
and  enabled  him  to  relish  a  good  song  or  a  good  story 
quite  as  much  as  a  good  book  or  a  good  sermon. 
Although,  as  I  have  heard  him  admit,  he  knew  nothing 
of  music  theoretically,  he  could  appreciate  it,  and  himself 
sing  with  true  expression.  The  best  songs  of  the  more 
sentimental  class  were  probably  "  The  Harp  that  once 
through  Tara's  Halls,"  "  Believe  me  if  all  these  endearing 
young  charms,"  and  the  "  Irish  Brigade " ;  while  among 


RECESS    STUDIES  55 

humorous  ones  he  excelled  in  "  Three  Jolly  Post-Boys " 
and  "Agus  O!"  the  latter  being  a  Highland  woman's 
lament  for  her  child ;  but  better,  perhaps,  than  any  of 
these  were  his  imitations  of  a  young  lady's  singing.  He 
had  a  command  of  the  falsetto  register  such  as  I  never 
knew  equalled,  rendering  an  entire  melody  in  it  with  the 
greatest  of  ease,  and  the  result  was  extremely  comical. 
I  have  seen  some  of  his  auditors  almost  in  fits,  and  he 
himself,  when  the  performance  was  finished,  seemed  to 
enjoy  it  quite  as  much  as  anyone.  His  two  principal 
songs  of  this  class  were  "  A  Father's  Love,"  and  "  Sweet 
Spirit,  hear  my  Prayer."  It  is  hard  to  say  which  of  them 
was  first  favourite.  He  also  told  a  good  story ;  he  had 
any  number  of  them  about  the  clergy,  some  of  them  not 
very  complimentary  to  that  body.  Perhaps  as  entertain- 
ing as  any  was  "  the  late  Rev.  Mr.  Davidson  of  Arran's 
Courtship,  as  narrated  by  himself." 

Matheson  was  a  born  actor;  the  histrionic 
faculty  was  strongly  developed  in  him.  He  could, 
single-handed,  entertain  an  audience  for  hours  ; 
and  while  a  student,  and  even  after  he  became  a 
minister,  he  occasionally  gratified  a  select  number 
of  friends  with  an  exhibition  of  his  gifts.  He 
was  also  a  wonderful  mimic.  He  naturally- 
dropped  the  practice  of  this  harmless  accomplish- 
ment as  he  grew  older.  Experience  taught  him 
that  even  the  greatest  can  be  touched  to  the  quick, 
when  the  gifts  on  which  they  pride  themselves 
are  caricatured  by  others.  Matheson  relieved 
the  strain  of  study  by  other  means.  The  stated 
course  of  reading  which  his  class  work  demanded 
was  supplemented  by  another,  which  was  even 
more  congenial  to  him.  He  delighted  from  his 
earliest  years  in  poetry.     Indeed,  he  was  a  poet 


56  RECESS   STUDIES 

before  he  was  a  philosopher  or  a  theologian,  and 
although  his  professional  studies  in  the  end  got 
the  upper  hand,  his  gift  of  song  was  never  quite 
silent.  Not  only  did  it  occasionally  burst  forth, 
but  It  gave  a  special  note  to  all  he  wrote. 
Even  his  most  thoughtful  and  serious  works 
are  touched  by  his  native  gift,  and  lifted  Into  a 
sphere  in  which  those  who  may  not  be  able  to 
follow  his  reasoning  find  themselves  In  a  congenial 
atmosphere.  His  appeal  to  their  imagination  is 
effective,  although  his  demand  upon  their  logic 
may  fail.  It  is  difficult  to  say  at  what  age  he 
first  began  to  write  poetry.  From  the  specimen 
already  given  of  his  powers,  his  first  flight  in  song 
must  have  been  before  he  reached  his  teens.  The 
poem  which  his  class-fellows  at  the  Academy 
admired  so  much,  and  caused  to  be  printed,  shows 
a  knowledge  of  the  technique  of  the  art  which 
could  not  be  acquired  in  a  day.  A  very  consider- 
able quantity  of  these  youthful  efforts  are  still  in 
manuscript ;  many  probably  were  destroyed,  but 
enough  remains  to  show  the  direction  in  which 
his  early  genius  flowed. 

It  was  during  the  summer  holidays  chiefly 
that  he  wrote  verse.  His  family  were  In  the 
habit  of  spending  the  greater  part  of  each  summer 
at  one  or  other  of  the  seaside  resorts  on  the  Firth 
of  Clyde.  Dunoon,  Skelmorlie,  Row,  and  Innellan 
were  visited  in  turn,  and  young  Matheson  took 
every  advantage  of  the  opportunities  which  these 
charming  places  afforded.     He  responded  to  their 


RECESS   STUDIES  57 

beauty,  took  extreme  delight  in  their  many 
attractions,  gave  free  expression  to  his  nature, 
and  enjoyed  himself  to  the  fullest.  Boating  was  a 
favourite  pastime ;  and  sailing  in  one  or  other  of 
the  many  steamboats  that  plied  up  and  down  the 
Firth  was  a  source  of  great  pleasure  to  him.  He 
was  well  known  to  captain  and  crew,  with  whom 
he  was  a  prime  favourite.  They  showed  him 
every  courtesy  and  attention ;  and  being  over- 
whelmed one  day  with  their  kindness,  he  said,  "  I 

might  be "  (mentioning  some  great  man),  **  you 

are  so  kind  to  me  "  ;  and  the  reply  was,  "  We  are 
fonder  of  you  than  of  him."  He  loved  to  walk  by 
the  seashore,  and  to  stand  on  the  pier  watching 
the  boats  coming  in ;  and  to  test  his  power  of 
vision,  then,  alas  !  steadily  failing,  he  would  tell  how 
many  funnels  they  had.  He  was  keenly  sensitive 
to  his  surroundings ;  and  even  to  the  last  he 
selected  the  place  for  his  summer  holiday  on  the 
ground  of  its  natural  attractions.  He  was  more 
alive  to  the  beauty  of  land  and  sea  than  the  vast 
majority  who  have  their  power  of  vision. 

It  was  during  one  of  those  summer  holidays 
that  the  first  of  his  Sacred  Songs  was  written. 
They  were  gradually  added  to  as  the  years  rolled 
by,  but  many  of  them,  his  sister  thinks,  were  com- 
posed while  he  was  a  student,  and  particularly  one 
summer  while  they  were  resident  at  Row.  An  old 
manuscript  volume  of  certain  of  these  Sacred 
Songs  still  remains,  and  at  the  top  there  is 
inscribed  the  words  "Written  in  Boyhood."     One 


58  RECESS   STUDIES 

or  two  of  them  are  equal  to  anything  that  he  wrote 
of  the  same  kind  afterwards, — with  the  exception 
of  course  of  his  famous  hymn, — in  particular  a  poem 
on  the  ''Withered  Fig-tree."  It  bears  as  a  head- 
ing the  text — 

"  How  soon  is  the  Fig-tree  withered  awayT 

Not  because  the  fruit  was  clinging 
To  thy  branches,  withered  tree, 
Came  the  awful  sentence,  ringing, 
"  Grow  not  henceforth  aught  on  thee." 

'Twas  not  time  for  thee  to  render 
What  required  the  ripening  hours. 
And  that  Heart  so  kind,  so  tender, 
Sought  not  what  surpassed  thy  powers. 

But  amidst  the  sunshine  gleaming. 
Thou  didst  proudly  rear  thy  head. 
And  thy  boughs  with  foliage  teeming. 
Falsely  to  the  traveller  said  : 

*'  Nature  fruit  to  me  has  given, 
Earlier  than  the  other  trees. 
And  the  beams  of  day  have  striven 
To  exalt  me  over  these." 

Many  trusted  in  thy  story, 
Hopeful  hearts  thou  didst  delude. 
And  the  very  King  of  Glory 
Came  to  see  thy  vaunted  good. 

Thy  pretentious  leaves  extending. 
Far  and  wide  in  empty  show. 
Kept  the  sunshine  from  descending 
On  the  humbler  plants  below. 

Thine  was  but  the  specious  beauty 
That  attracts  the  stranger's  gaze, 
Lustre  more  was  prized  than  duty. 
Virtue  less  desired  than  praise. 


RECESS    STUDIES  59 

Therefore  fell  those  words  that  blighted, 
Like  the  fleecy  winter's  breath  ; 
And  the  charms  that  once  delighted, 
Withered  in  the  grasp  of  death. 

He  composed  about  this  period  two  long  poems, 
of  about  one  thousand  lines  each,  the  one  dealing 
with  a  sacred  and  the  other  with  a  classical 
subject.  They  are  both  written  In  blank  verse. 
On  reading  over  these  two  poems  one  can  see, 
at  a  glance,  how  blank  verse  was  a  much  more 
effective  measure  In  Matheson's  hand  than  the 
different  forms  of  metre  afterwards  chosen  by 
him  In  writing  his  Sacred  Songs.  The  form  of 
versification  which  hymn-wrlting  demands  would 
seem  to  have  cramped  his  easy  flow  of  thought 
and  freedom  of  expression.  This  was  entirely 
owing  to  his  blindness.  It  Is  easy  to  perceive  how 
difficult  It  would  be  for  anyone  without  the  faculty 
of  vision  to  conform  to  an  artificial  and  intricate 
measure.  In  epic  verse  this  difficulty  Is  consider- 
ably lessened,  and  that  Is,  perhaps,  the  reason 
why  It  was  chosen  by  blind  Homer  and  blind 
Milton  for  their  great  poems.  It  seems  a  pity, 
with  the  specimens  which  he  has  left  us,  that 
Matheson  did  not  persevere  in  this  form  of  verse. 
The  following  account  of  his  poetic  labours  at  this 
time  may  not  be  without  Interest : — 

The  poetical  genius  of  George  Matheson  culminated 
in  that  beautiful  hymn  "  O  Love  that  wilt  not  let  me 
go,"  but  there  were  many  previous  excursions  into  the 
field  of  poesy,  most  of  which  he  strangely  suppressed. 
He  was  a  poet  before  he  became  a  preacher.     Some  of 


60  RECESS   STUDIES 

us  who  knew  him  in  early  years  expected  that  he  would 
become  famous  as  one  of  the  great  poets  of  our  day. 
I  remember  that  in  the  summer  of  1862  there  was  a 
company  of  students  resident  in  Dunoon :  D.  M.  Gordon, 
now  Principal  Gordon  of  Queen's  University,  Canada; 
C.  M.  Grant,  now  the  Rev.  Dr.  Grant  of  Dundee ;  Finlay 
M'Donald,  late  minister  of  Coupar-Angus ;  and  Jas. 
Fraser,  now  minister  of  Rogers  Hill,  Nova  Scotia.  We 
were  at  a  lodging  in  the  East  Bay,  which  came  to  be 
known  as  the  "  Bears'  Den."  We  regularly  walked  out 
together,  and  talked  on  all  subjects  in  heaven  and  earth. 
Matheson  was  resident  with  his  parents  in  one  of  the 
grander  houses  of  the  West  Bay,  but  his  spirit  of  comrade- 
ship was  strong,  and  he  always  endeavoured  to  join  us 
as  we  passed  towards  Morag's  Fairy  Glen  and  to  the 
Innellan  shore ;  and  he  had  nearly  always  a  new  addition 
to  a  great  poem  on  which  he  was  then  engaged.  The 
subject  was  "  Zillah,  or  the  Life  before  the  Flood." 
But  strangely  enough  he  would  not  recite  the  lines  until 
we  led  him  into  what  he  considered  suitable  surroundings. 
His  favourite  spot  was  an  opening  in  the  grove  under 
Ardmillan,  then  the  residence  of  Professor  Buchanan 
(Logic  Bob).  We  had  to  lead  him  to  the  exact  spot 
where  the  opening  Firth  could  be  seen.  He  was  most 
particular  about  the  pose  and  the  outlook,  though  blind ; 
and  then  he  would  begin  to  recite  with  all  enthusiasm. 
The  picture  of  the  youthful  Zillah  sitting  beside  the  aged 
Methusaleh  asking  strange,  imperious  questions,  I  still 
remember  vividly.  Some  of  the  lines  I  remembered 
for  many  years,  and  I  often  wondered  why  "  Zillah " 
did  not  appear  in  print.  She  was  one  of  the  factors  in 
my  literary  being. 

The  poem  to  which  Dr.  Somerville  here  refers 
bears  in  its  final  recension  the  title  *'  The  Last 
of  the  Antediluvians."  It  would  have  been  better 
perhaps  if  Matheson  had  stuck  to  his  first  choice 
and  called  it  "  Zillah,"  for  she  is  the  central  figure 
of  the  poem.     The  subject,  as  its  title  suggests,  is 


RECESS   STUDIES  61 

the  Flood,  and  it  is  treated  with  much  dramatic 
power  and  poetic  insight  and  grace.  We  have 
on  the  one  hand  Lamech  and  his  three  sons,  who 
represent  the  Spirit  of  the  world  ;  and  on  the  other, 
Noah  and  his  three  sons,  who  represent  the  Spirit 
that  is  above  the  world.  These  characters,  in  their 
various  intercourse,  bring  into  prominence  the 
conflict  of  thought  and  aspiration  which  justified 
the  Flood.  As  a  mediating  influence  is  Zillah, 
the  daughter  of  Jubal,  and  the  beloved  of  Japheth, 
who  would  save  her  from  the  impending  doom. 
The  story  of  her  fate,  the  descriptions  of  the  Flood, 
with  the  emotions  and  passions  that  filled  the  hearts 
and  distracted  the  minds  of  the  proud  spirits  that 
defied  and  denied  Jehovah,  are  strikingly  graphic. 
The  young  poet  traces  his  characters  with  a  firm 
hand ;  and  there  is  passage  after  passage  which 
show  how  well  in  his  early  years  he  used  his 
eyes.  Many  in  after  years  were  often  surprised 
at  the  minute  knowledge  which  he  possessed  of 
natural  objects.  Anyone  who  reads  this  poem 
will  notice  how  clearly  he  saw  and  how  closely  he 
observed.  If  genius  consists  in  the  power  of 
seeing,  Matheson  surely  possessed  it ;  and  what 
he  did  see  in  his  youth  left  an  image  on  his  mind 
that  time  could  never  erase. 

Our  first  glimpse  of  Zillah  is  when  she  attracts 
the  notice  of  Methusaleh,  who  is  sitting  at  the  door 
of  Lamech's  tent,  to  which  he  had  been  carried  by 
Jubal,  who  thought  that  in  this  way  he  would  avert 
the  calamity  of  the  Flood  ;  for  Methusaleh,  being  a 


62  RECESS   STUDIES 

good  man,  God  would  surely  not  destroy  him.  If 
he  were  prevented  from  finding  shelter  in  the  ark 
the  threatened  deluge  would  be  stayed.  This 
stratao^em  the  sons  of  Lamech  thought  would  at 
once  throw  discredit  on  Noah's  prophecy  and  save 
themselves.  Methusaleh,  sitting  sadly  at  the  door 
of  the  tent,  longs  to  return  to  his  own  people  : 

He  turned  his  eyes  upon  the  endless  deep, 
Which  mirrored  back  the  radiant  smile  of  morn, 
And  on  the  margin  of  its  shore  descried 
A  child,  intent  on  that  unfathomed  world ; 
A  girlish  form,  more  ripe  in  thoughts  than  years. 
She  caught  his  eye,  with  timid  steps  drew  near, 
And  naively  asked  :  "  What  lies  beneath  the  sea  ? 
Surely  some  land  as  beautiful  as  ours. 
For  nature  here  has  tried  to  mimic  earth ; 
And  when  the  moon  is  lighted  in  our  sky, 
In  the  great  sea  another  moon  is  hung. 
And  there  are  voices  like  the  sounds  of  song. 
And  sometimes  tones  like  those  of  human  grief. 
Perhaps  we  too  dwell  down  below  a  sea. 
Is  not  yon  heaven  like  a  great  ocean,  blue, 
And  on  its  surface  may  not  spirits  float. 
And  wonder  who  are  we  that  dwell  beneath  ? 

Japheth,  in  pleading  with  his  father  for  liberty 
to  take  Zillah  into  the  ark,  thus  describes  her  : 

My  father,  I  must  go. 
There  is  a  well-wrought  scheme  within  my  brain, 
Jubal,  the  son  of  Lamech,  has  a  child, 
A  little  girl,  whose  beaming  countenance 
Mirrors  the  beauty  of  a  spotless  soul. 
'Tis  like  a  sky,  where  night  is  never  seen. 
Where  twilight  shadows  never  meet  the  eye. 
Where  sombre  clouds  love  not  to  linger  long. 
For  happiness  looks  sunlight  from  her  eyes. 


HECESS   STUDIES  63 

Shedding  the  lustre  of  unchequered  day. 
She  has  not  heard  of  God,  yet  has  her  soul 
Sought  some  exalted  worship ;  and  in  sun, 
And  moon,  and  stars,  in  tempest  and  in  cloud, 
In  rippling  stream,  and  far-resounding  sea, 
In  pensive  evening,  a'nd  majestic  night. 
She  sees  some  greatness  which  she  may  adore, 
And  deifies  the  garments  of  our  God. 

The  first  threatenino^  of  the  deluo^e  is  thus 
described  : 

Up  from  the  hollow  caverns  of  the  earth 

There  comes  a  rushing  sound  like  the  great  hum 

Of  some  far-distant  ocean  ;  yet  ere  long 

The  murmur  rolls  more  loudly,  and  at  last 

The  ground  begins  to  shake  beneath  their  feet, 

As  if  the  very  heart  of  the  vast  world 

Were  palpitating  with  an  awful  dread. 

They  stand  aghast,  each  scans  his  neighbour's  face 

And  finds  no  comfort  there. 

Zillah,  vi^ho  had  been  brought  by  Japheth 
into  the  ark,  in  her  anxiety  for  her  father's 
safety  climbs  to  its  top,  and  v^hilst  scanning  the 
waters  for  his  form,  is  thus  impressed  by  the 
terrible  desolation  around  her  : 

She  heard  the  thunder  roll, 
A  peal  so  loud  that  all  the  mountains  shook. 
And  threaten'd  to  fall  headlong  on  the  plains. 
Then  came  a  frightful  crash,  the  earth  was  rent. 
And,  bursting  open  wide,  disclosed  a  gulf 
Whence  the  imprisoned  waters  from  beneath 
Darted,  with  lofty  leap,  into  the  air. 
And  the  great  sea,  made  mightier  by  the  rains. 
No  more  restrained  itself,  but  burst  its  bonds. 
Bounding  to  meet  the  subterranean  flood, 


64  RECESS   STUDIES 

As  host  advances  to  encounter  host, 
And  in  a  moment,  like  a  fleeting  dream, 
Terrestrial  objects  vanished  from  the  eye. 
Not  as  the  summer  gently  fades  away, 
But  rather  as  is  ravished  from  the  view, 
A  sunny  peak,  where  sudden  clouds  alight. 
Extinguishing  its  glory.     The  vast  plains, 
The  modest  valleys,  the  oak-studded  woods. 
The  stable  rocks,  and  the  stupendous  hills. 
All  dipped  beneath  the  unrelenting  waves  ; 
The  lights  went  out  in  the  celestial  halls, 
All  space  put  on  her  funeral  attire ; 
The  chambers  of  the  universe  were  dark ; 
Their  walls  were  lined  with  drapery  of  black, 
In  tribute  to  the  earth  that  was  no  more. 

If  the  theme  of  this  poem  was  inspired  by 
Milton's  Paradise  Lost,  the  second  undoubtedly 
owed  its  origin  to  Byron,  who  was,  as  we  have 
seen,  one  of  those  who  influenced  Matheson  dur- 
ing his  College  career.  Its  title  is  ''The  Blind 
Girl's  Retrospect."  The  scene  is  laid  in  Greece, 
and  the  hero  is  a  corsair.  It  is  not  necessary  to 
give  a  sketch  of  the  plot,  for  the  author,  in  a 
foreword,  declares  that  his  aim  was  purely 
a  "philosophical  one."  "It  is  not  so  much 
designed,"  he  says,  "to  depict  any  adventures 
peculiar  to  a  blind  girl,  as  to  ascertain  two  things  : 
First — With  what  imaginary  analysis  one  born 
blind  might  associate  the  descriptions  of  visual 
phenomena  ;  and  Second — How  far  the  imagination 
could  extend  without  the  aid  of  the  visual  faculty." 
It  is  interesting  to  note  that  this  poem  was  written 
by  Matheson  in  his  eighteenth  or  nineteenth  year, 
just  at  the  time  when  the  failure  of  his  eyesight  had 


RECESS   STUDIES  65 

become  almost  complete.  It  is  pathetic  to  find 
him  taking  up  such  a  theme  and  spending  his  full 
strength  on  it.  It  is  a  strong  testimony,  at  the 
same  time,  to  his  cheery  optimism  and  unconquer- 
able faith.  He  did  not  take  his  misfortune  lying 
down.  He  attempted,  on  the  contrary,  to  turn  it 
to  a  glorious  use. 

It  is  remarkable  how,  many  years  afterwards, 
when,  as  minister  of  St.  Bernard's,  he  gave  an 
address  to  the  inmates  of  the  Blind  Asylum,  his 
theme  was  the  very  one  which  formed  the  subject 
of  this  early  poem.  Reverting,  afterwards,  to  the 
subject,  he  remarked  to  a  friend  : 

I  hold  that  the  training  of  the  blind  has  been  greatly 
neglected  in  one  respect,  that  of  the  higher  imagination. 
They  have  been  taught  any  amount  of  cyphering  and 
manual  work,  but  it  seems  to  me  that  they  have  not  been 
taught  what  they  most  need,  namely,  how  to  conceive 
the  thing  which  has  been  denied  to  them.  The  blind 
cannot  conceive  sight,  as  sight,  but  I  hold  that  they  may 
be  made  to  conceive  it  by  analogy.  Experiments  have 
convinced  me  that  hearing  is  as  much  a  revealer  of  form 
as  sight.  We  know  that  originally  sight  has  no  more  to 
do  with  form  than  hearing  has.  Touch,  alone,  gives  the 
idea  of  extension  of  form.  The  only  thing  which  is 
originally  given  by  sight  is  colour,  not  even  distance.  I 
hold  that  sound  is  simply  a  colour  of  the  ear,  and  that  it 
is  possible  to  conceive  figure  by  the  ear.  For  instance,  by 
ringing  a  bell  at  three  points,  you  convey  to  the  ear  a 
distinct  impression  of  a  triangle ;  and,  after  all,  there  are 
only  a  very  few  forms  in  the  universe.  Begin  by 
representing  lines,  and  you  may  go  on  representing 
the  very  sky  to  the  blind.  When  I  went  to  the  Blind 
Asylum,  and  described  the  sun  rising,  they  said  it  was  a 
revelation,  and   you  would   have   rejoiced    to   hear   their 

5 


66  RECESS   STUDIES 

exclamations.      Never    before,    they   said,    had    anyone 
broken  the  dark  cloud. 

''  The  Blind  Girl's  Retrospect "  is  an  illustration 
of  Matheson's  views  on  this  subject.  He  attempts 
to  show  how,  by  her  other  faculties,  particularly 
those  of  hearing  and  of  touch,  and  also  by  her 
imagination,  she  is  able  to  conceive  to  herself  the 
visible  world.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  Matheson 
himself  carried  out  his  principles.  He  was  never 
without  a  picture  in  his  mind  of  his  surroundings, 
and  he  created  an  image  of  the  natural  scenery  in 
which  he  moved.  The  images  in  his  mind  were 
quite  as  distinct  and  glowing,  and  in  many  respects 
more  vivid  and  accurate,  than  those  which  affected 
the  retina  of  ordinary  observers.  He  thus  con- 
stantly lived  in  a  world  of  reality.  It  was  framed  and 
filled  by  his  imagination,  aided  by  his  other  senses, 
which  had  been  carefully  trained  by  a  lengthened 
experience.  He  always  formed  to  himself  a  por- 
trait of  the  individual  with  whom  he  might  be 
conversing,  and  he  sometimes  amused  a  friend  by 
describing  him  to  his  face.  An  instance  of  this 
kind  is  recorded  by  the  Rev.  James  Cunningham, 
an  old  fellow-student  of  Matheson's,  and  now 
minister  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  Wandsworth. 
Cunningham  had  paid  Matheson  a  visit,  in  the 
summer  of  1898,  at  Craigmore,  Rothesay,  and 
among  other  interesting  topics  that  he  refers  to, 
Mr.  Cunningham  says:  "After  lunch,  and,  full 
time  to  take  what  Mr.  Fawcett  used  to  call  '  a  good 
look  of  his  man,'  when  Matheson  began  to  describe 


RECESS   STUDIES  ^7 

my  appearance,  as  he  conceived  it,  in  a  series  of 
queries,  his  sister  and  I  delightedly  responding, 
'Yes,  yes;  Right,  right,'  it  was  my  turn  to  clap 
hands,  but  nearer  crying  than  laughing."  To  such 
a  man  the  loss  of  sight  was  not  the  calamity 
which  it  would  have  been  to  others  less  endowed 
with  intellect,  imagination,  and  Christian  faith. 
More  than  most,  he  was  the  habitant  of  two  worlds, 
both  intensely  real  and  living. 

The  poem  opens  with  a  soliloquy  by  the  Blind 
Girl  as  she  sits  by  the  seashore  : — 

Art  thou  not  weary,  music-breathing  sea  ? 
Is  thy  great  voice  not  yet  worn  hoarse  with  time  ? 
Storms  rend  the  breast  of  man  and  scatter  strife, 
Thy  tempest  is  but  high-toned  harmony. 

After  a  pause  she  breaks  forth  in  the  following 
invocation  to  Light  : — 

O  Light !  thou  unknown  object  of  my  search. 

Too  much  a  spirit  to  impress  the  touch, 

Thou  art  the  oldest  of  created  things. 

And  heaven  delights  to  be  compared  with  thee. 

For  God  has  called  Himself  "  Light  of  the  Wodd." 

In  the  following  passage  we  find  an  illustration 
of  his  theory,  that  the  objects  of  vision  can  be 
conceived  by  the  other  senses  with  the  aid  of  the 
imagination  : — 

One  day  the  winds  ran  loose  along  the  deep. 
And  high  in  space  the  storm-king  blustered  by ; 
In  rocky  cradle,  moaned  the  restless  sea, 
And  nature,  sorrowful,  began  to  weep, 
Pouring  down  tears  of  rain  upon  the  trees. 


68  RECESS   STUDIES 

As  nature  wept,  the  rude  and  burly  blast, 
With  wanton  mirth,  scattered  her  tears  away, 
The  sea  birds'  cry  shivered  the  air  in  twain, 
Dragging  behind  it  echoes  from  the  hills. 

The  lowliest  chorister  that  cleaves  the  air 

Can  revel  in  an  enviable  joy, 

Yet  these  I  envy  not,  for  I  can  feel 

How  beautiful  is  light  by  its  effects. 

For  I  can  judge  the  parent  by  her  child, 

And  light  is  parent  of  all  happiness, 

And  tunes  the  lark  to  song  when  sleep  dissolves. 

Yet  there  are  times  when  man  complains  of  light, 

And  speaks  as  one  deserted  by  his  guide ; 

I  never  knew  them,  never  felt  their  power. 

Whence  is  it  so  with  me  the  blind  Greek  girl  ? 

Perhaps  as  one  on  whose  familiar  ear 

The  ticking  of  the  clock  has  fallen  long, 

Grows  passive,  and  forgets  the  tuneless  sound. 

So  has  the  habit  of  this  darkness  grown, 

That  I  in  vain  would  find  where  it  abides, 

And  cannot  feel  the  horror  it  involves. 

The  reflections  which  these  poems — with  Mathe- 
son's  own  thoughts  on  the  power  of  imagination 
working  upon  the  deposits  of  memory  and  on  the 
other  senses,  particularly  that  of  hearing — suggest, 
is  finely  expressed  in  a  reference  to  the  subject  by 
Dr.  David  Sime,  who  for  ten  years  (i 872-1 882) 
practised  in  Innellan,  and  who  during  the  whole 
of  that  period  was  on  the  most  intimate  terms  with 
Dr.  Matheson.     He  remarks  : 

His  memory  of  the  light  of  nature,  and  of  sunsets, 
and  of  the  green  earth  and  its  flowers,  and  of  the  stars  in 
the  infinite  depths  of  sky ;  the  memory  of  the  faces  of 
man  and  woman,  of  mother  and  father,  of  sisters  and 
brothers,  remained  with  him,  and  grew  purer,  more  choice 


RECESS   STUDIES  69 

and  sweeter  every  year.  The  same  kind  of  sifting, 
burnishing  process  of  the  sweets  of  recollection  is  to  be 
seen  in  Milton's  superb  description  of  sunrise  in  Paradise. 
The  poet  was  blind,  and  had  been  so  for  years  in  the 
heart  of  a  great  city's  crowded  life,  when  he  wrought  in 
undying  poetry  this  vision.  But  it  was  the  memory  of  a 
thousand  sunrises,  and  lingering  so  long,  and  becoming 
more  and  more  perfect  in  such  a  mind,  it  became  all  the 
more  fitted  for  a  sunrise  in  Paradise  itself  Dr.  Matheson's 
memories  of  the  loveliness  of  sea,  cloud,  and  sky,  and  of 
the  earth  in  its  seasons  which  were  now  shut  out  from 
him  for  his  life  on  earth,  became  idealised,  and  at  times 
his  talk  of  the  visible  universe  was  like  that  of  a  spirit, 
and  always  with  emotion.  It  is  the  memory  of  pleasures 
and  highest  joys  that  alone  lingers  in  the  mind.  Pain 
and  suffering  of  even  intensest  degree,  when  once  over,  as 
in  toothache,  neuralgia,  colic,  are,  thank  Heaven,  soon 
forgotten.  So,  likewise,  are  disappointment,  misunder- 
standing, persecution,  failure.  Even  the  misery,  the  corrupt 
injustices  and  sufferings,  the  depravity  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
are  well-nigh  obliterated  in  their  sanctity,  worship,  and 
work.  Complete  as  it  was,  Dr.  Matheson's  blindness  was 
not  revealed  so  much  in  his  brown  laughing  eyes,  which 
were  expressive,  and  had  a  light  of  their  own  which  was 
from  within  and  not  of  the  world,  as  perhaps  in  the  use 
of  his  delicate  hands.  When  he  laughed  heartily,  as  he 
often  did,  and  he  had  an  unrestrained  flowing  laugh,  full 
of  thrillinor  delight — he  would  sometimes  flutter  his  hands 
like  wings,  as  if  still  he  were  a  wondering  wee  boy.  And 
to  the  end  he  had  much  of  the  sweet  spontaneity  of  a 
child. 


CHAPTER   IV 
PROBATION 

Matheson  was  licensed  by  his  own  Presbytery, 
that  of  Glasgow,  on  13th  June  1866.  The  register 
is  signed  twice  in  his  own  handwriting.  The 
penmanship  is  round,  clear,  and  bold  ;  in  later 
years,  from  lack  of  practice,  there  was  a  marked 
falling  off  in  his  caligraphy,  but  up  to  the  very  end 
he  was  in  the  habit  of  freely  appending  his  signature, 
and  sometimes,  as  a  mark  of  very  special  favour, 
he  would  pen  a  whole  letter  with  his  own  hand. 
Very  few  young  men  ever  appeared  before  a 
Presbytery  to  receive  their  commission  to  preach 
the  everlasting  gospel  more  fully  equipped  for  the 
task  than  George  Matheson.  He  had  spent  nine 
years  at  the  University  of  Glasgow,  five  in  Arts 
and  four  in  Divinity.  He  had  entered  with  zest 
into  the  work  of  the  different  classes,  gaining  the 
highest  honours  in  many  of  them.  The  summer 
vacation  was  industriously  employed  in  studying 
the  great  masterpieces  of  English  Literature,  in 
maturing  his  mind  and  perfecting  his  style,  and 
generally,  in  broadening  his  culture.     He  did  not 

70 


PROBATION  71 

enter  the  ministry  as  a  bread-and-butter  pro- 
fession ;  it  was  his  early  choice.  From  his  youth 
upwards  he  had  a  passion  for  preaching.  The 
sphere  which  the  Church  could  afford  him  for 
exercising  to  the  fullest  his  rare  gifts  of  thought 
and  speech  he  highly  valued,  and  one  of  the  great 
regrets  of  his  closing  years  was  the  fact  that  his 
failing  health  compelled  him  to  relinquish  his 
charge,  and  to  decline  the  many  pressing  invita- 
tions which  he  received  to  address,  in  different  parts 
of  the  country,  the  large  crowds  that  were  eager  to 
hear  him. 

It  was  not,  however,  till  the  following  year 
that  he  entered  upon  his  professional  duties.  The 
summer  and  autumn  months  that  intervened  were 
employed  in  preparing  himself  for  his  new  vocation, 
in  writinor  sermons,  and  in  travel.  There  are  still 
in  existence  a  number  of  his  early  productions, 
some  of  them  College  exercises,  and  others  written 
for  future  use.  They  are  inscribed  on  loose  sheets 
of  paper,  and  do  not  belong  to  the  professional 
period  of  his  life  proper.  From  the  time  that  he 
preached  his  first  sermon  as  an  assistant,  to  the 
day  that  he  delivered  his  farewell  as  minister  of 
St.  Bernard's  parish,  he  was  careful  to  have  his 
sermons  written  in  large  and  well-bound  notebooks. 
Each  notebook  is  numbered,  and  so  is  each  sermon. 
At  the  end  of  every  notebook  there  is  an  index 
giving  the  date  on  which  the  sermon  was  written 
and  the  churches  in  which  it  was  preached.  And 
at  the  close  of  each  sermon  that  was  written  out 


72  PROBATION 

in  full  there  is  a  brief  summary,  a  skeleton  of  its 
contents,  which,  should  he  have  occasion  to  preach 
it  again,  he  could  easily  carry  in  his  mind  to  the 
pulpit.  One  is  greatly  struck  by  the  care  displayed, 
not  only  in  the  preparation,  but  in  the  penning  of 
these  sermons.  There  is  hardly  an  erasure,  and 
they  could  be  printed  from  beginning  to  end 
without  a  correction.  This  regard  for  exactness 
characterised  all  his  work,  and  his  different 
secretaries  testify  to  his  having  suffered  more 
agony  in  the  correction  of  his  proofs  than  in  the 
composition  of  his  works.  I  remember  meeting 
him  on  one  occasion  at  a  private  dinner-party ;  it 
was  at  Christmas-time,  and  he  had  just  posted  the 
final  revision  of  a  volume  that  was  not  to  appear 
till  the  following  autumn.  He  had  failed,  or 
thought  he  had  failed,  to  make  a  correction  ;  it  was 
a  single  word,  and  an  outsider  could  not  understand 
how  even  with  the  desired  correction  the  sense  or 
style  could  be  improved.  He,  however,  was 
differently  affected,  and  now  and  again  the  thought 
of  this   omission  disturbed  his  enjoyment   of  the 


evenme. 


Matheson  was  never  much  of  a  traveller ;  he 
detested  railway  journeys.  This  can  be  easily 
accounted  for.  Had  he  been  able  to  travel  alone 
with  his  secretary,  all  might  have  been  well,  for 
he  could  then  have  enjoyed  being  read  to,  which 
was  one  of  his  greatest  pleasures ;  but  in  the 
company  of  fellow-passengers  this  was  impossible. 
Latterly,  also,  he  had  a  repugnance  to   being   all 


PROBATION  73 

night  from  home,  and  he  preferred  to  make  preach- 
ing engagements  which  would  enable  him  to  return 
the  same  evening.  Before  harnessing  himself, 
however,  to  what  was  to  be  his  life's  work  he  made 
a  trip  to  London  and  another  to  Paris.  He  was 
accompanied  on  the  latter  occasion  by  his  brother 
John,  and  his  sister  declares  that  they  were  amazed 
at  the  interestinof  account  which  George  grave  of  his 
trip.  *'  Few,"  she  remarks,  "  who  had  good  eyesight 
could  describe  things  and  places  as  he  did."  Have 
we  not  in  this  a  proof  of  his  own  contention  that  the 
faculties  of  hearing  and  of  touch,  aided,  as  in  his 
case,  by  memory  and  by  a  powerful  and  well- trained 
imagination,  are  able  to  represent  to  the  mind  the 
world  of  vision.  This  was  the  only  foreign  tour  in 
which  he  indulged,  but  blind  as  he  was  he  probably 
learned  far  more  from  it  than  do  the  modern  globe- 
trotters, who  career  through  Europe  at  the  rate  of 
a  country  a  day,  from  their  incessant  travelling  and 
constant  sight-seeing. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  Matheson  on 
starting  his  ministerial  life  was  determined  to  be  a 
great  preacher.  It  was  his  ambition  to  do  with  all 
his  might  any  work  to  which  he  might  put  his  hand. 
Whether  he  succeeded  or  not  he  always  aimed  at 
being  first,  not  that  he  might  outstrip  rivals,  for  no 
man  that  attained  to  his  supreme  position  ever 
provoked  so  few  jealousies.  It  was  a  healthy 
boyish  instinct  that  possessed  him,  and  all  who 
knew  him  intimately  were  at  once  disarmed  by 
this  youthful  element  in  his  nature  ;  and,  when  he 


74  PROBATION 

hit  the  mark  in  a  sermon  or  a  book,  they  shared 
his  joy  just  as  much  as  if  he  had  been  a  young 
fellow  who  had  made  the  highest  score  in  a  cricket 
match  or  won  the  game  at  football.  It  will,  then, 
go  without  saying  that  he  formed  to  himself  an 
ideal  of  preaching,  and  took  advantage  of  hearing 
the  most  renowned  exponents  of  the  Art  within 
his  reach.  He  was  singularly  fortunate  in  this 
respect,  for  Glasgow  at  that  time  possessed  several 
preachers  who  left  their  mark  on  their  generation. 
It  will  be  enough  to  mention  five  :  Caird,  Norman 
Macleod,  Charteris,  Pulsford,  and  Macduff.  It  is 
no  disparagement  to  present-day  pulpit  oratory  to 
say  that  no  city  in  Scotland  can  now  boast  of  such 
a  combination.  They  were  men  who  profoundly 
impressed,  by  their  thought,  eloquence,  and  life, 
not  only  the  city  which  boasted  of  their  ministry, 
but  the  country  as  a  whole.  Indeed,  the  fame  of 
some  of  them  travelled  far  beyond  the  limits  of 
their  native  land,  and  their  names  are  still  cherished 
by  many  as  household  words.  There  can  be  no 
doubt  that  Matheson  was  much  impressed  by  them 
all,  and  in  a  sense  he  was  the  representative  of  all 
their  special  qualities.  The  speculative  genius 
of  Caird,  the  humanitarianism  of  Macleod,  the 
mysticism  of  Pulsford,  the  fervour  of  Charteris,  and 
the  poetry  of  Macduff,  may  all  be  said  to  be 
reproduced  in  Matheson,  but  in  such  a  way  as  not 
to  dominate  but  to  make  them  tributary  to  his 
native  genius,  which  incorporated  and  transformed 
them  into  its  own  likeness.     Nor  was  he  slow  in 


PROBATION  75 

acknowledging  his  indebtedness  to  two  of  them  at 
least.  He  was  in  the  habit  of  declaring  that  he 
owed  his  spiritual  awakening  to  William  Pulsford, 
the  thoughtful  and  saintly  minister  of  Trinity 
Church,  Glasgow.  *'  The  man  of  all  others,"  he 
once  declared,  ''that  shaped  my  personality,  was 
Pulsford.  I  met  him  only  once,  but  I  never  heard 
a  man  who  so  inspired  me ;  he  set  me  on  fire,  and, 
under  God,  he  was  my  spiritual  creator."  Dr. 
Pulsford  was  told  this  on  his  deathbed,  and  it  was 
a  great  joy  to  him. 

Trinity  Church  is  situated  in  the  Sandyford 
district  of  Glasgow.  It  was  within  a  stone-throw 
of  Matheson's  residence  as  a  student  in  St.  Vincent 
Crescent.  It  was  also  within  a  few  minutes'  walk 
of  Woodside  Terrace,  whither  the  family  had  re- 
moved before  George's  University  course  was  com- 
pleted. Matheson  would,  accordingly,  be  a  frequent 
worshipper  in  Trinity  Church,  drawn  thither,  like 
many  other  students,  by  the  winning  personality 
and  suggestive  preaching  of  William  Pulsford. 
The  minister  of  Trinity  Church  was  not  a  popular 
preacher  in  the  ordinary  acceptation  of  the  term. 
He  did  not  strive  nor  cry  ;  he  made  no  attempt  to 
attract  crowds  by  any  of  those  methods  with  which 
we  in  these  times  are  only  too  familiar.  He  was 
content  to  be  himself,  and  to  give  of  his  best  in  his 
own  quiet  but  effective  manner.  I  have  heard  him 
in  Trinity  on  a  Sunday  evening.  There  was  no 
crowd,  indeed  It  might  be  called  a  small  audience, 
but  one  felt  the  Inspiration  of  the  man.     His  very 


7&  PROBATION 

appearance  was  a  benediction.  As  a  pastor  he  was 
a  true  son  of  consolation  ;  he  was  surrounded  by 
a  spiritual  atmosphere  which  gave  comfort  and  im- 
parted peace  to  the  afflicted.  One  of  his  greatest 
friends  and  admirers  was  Principal  Caird,  who  fre- 
quently invited  him  to  preach  in  the  University 
Chapel.  It  is  now  twenty  years  since  he  died,  but 
the  remaining  members  of  his  flock  regard  his 
memory  with  the  profoundest  reverence. 

The  other  preacher  to  whom  Matheson  has 
publicly  owned  his  indebtedness  was  Dr.  Macduff 
of  Sandyford  Church.  He  was  what  may  be  called 
a  sweet  preacher,  an  exponent  of  the  devout  life, 
a  gentle  radiance  that  brightened  the  path  of 
Christians  on  their  pilgrimage  from  earth  to 
heaven.  He  was  the  author  of  books  that  had  a 
phenomenal  circulation ;  some  of  them  reaching 
the  unprecedented  figure  of  three  millions.  Such 
volumes  as  Memories  of  Bethany,  Grapes  of 
Eshcol,  Memories  of  Olivet,  Morning  and  Night 
Watches,  Palms  of  Elim,  and  many  others,  found 
readers  in  every  part  of  the  world,  and  no  name 
was  so  universally  known  and  respected  by  the 
Christian  public  of  his  day  as  that  of  Dr.  Macduff. 
He  was  the  minister  of  Matheson's  boyhood  and 
early  manhood.  He  was  the  first  incumbent  of 
Sandyford  Church,  and  his  congregation  was  one 
of  the  largest  and  wealthiest  in  the  city.  Between 
the  two  there  was  formed  an  early  friendship,  which 
continued  unbroken  until  the  end  ;  and  it  said  much 
for  Matheson  that  six  months  after  he  was  licensed 


PROBATION  77 

as  a  probationer  of  the  Church  he  was  invited  by 
Dr.  Macduff  to  become  his  assistant.  The  young 
licentiate  naturally  shrank  from  the  position  to 
which  he  was  thus  invited.  He  felt  a  reluctance 
to  assume  ministerial  duties  in  the  church  in  which 
he  was  brought  up,  and  among  a  people  who  knew 
him  so  intimately,  and  who  represented  the  culture 
and  the  influence  of  the  city.  He  also  felt  his 
unpreparedness  for  the  task,  and  pled  with  Dr. 
MacduflT  to  excuse  him  on  the  ground  that  he 
had  hardly  any  sermons.  *'How  many  have 
you?"  asked  Macduff.  *' Only  thirteen,"  said 
young  Matheson.  ''Ah,  then,  you  are  rich,"  was 
the  rejoinder,  and  the  appointment  was  made  on 
8th  January  1867.  I  have  been  favoured  with  the 
following  interesting  sketch  of  this  period  of 
Matheson's  life  by  Dr.  Macduff's  daughter,  who 
has  inherited  much  of  her  father's  literary  talent : 

George  Matheson  did  not  come  amongst  us  for  the 
first  time  when  he  began  his  ministerial  duties.  His 
parents  had  (I  believe  from  the  date  of  its  opening)  been 
members  of  Sandyford  Church,  and  had  for  years  en- 
riched the  heart  and  life  of  its  minister  by  their  valued 
friendship.  From  early  boyhood  their  eldest  son  grew 
up  in  our  sanctuary  as  in  a  spiritual  home,  and  its  holy 
and  beautiful  services  were  familiar  to  him  long  before  he 
occupied  its  pulpit. 

Thus,  when  the  time  of  his  appointment  arrived,  he  be- 
came all  at  once  the  teacher  of  those  who  had  watched 
his  development  from  childhood.  Some,  who  listened 
with  a  thrill  of  pride  and  joy  to  his  first  public  utterances, 
had  known  him  from  earliest  years,  and  in  other  homes 
besides  our  own  he  was  still  affectionately  and  familiarly 
spoken  of  simply  as  "  George,"  as  if  there  were  but  one 


78  PROBATION 

George  in  the  world  to  us.  If  this  very  fact  might  in 
some  ways  be  supposed  to  add  to  the  difficulties  of  the 
young  pastor's  task,  the  warmth  of  the  friendly  atmosphere 
by  which  he  was  surrounded  must  at  the  same  time  have 
proved  an  inspiration  and  a  joy. 

At  the  period  in  which  he  became  my  father's  helper, 
Dr.  Matheson  was  still  very  youthful  in  appearance,  re- 
taining an  almost  boyish  contour  of  countenance,  and 
was,  I  can  well  remember,  in  spite  of  difficulties  connected 
with  his  sight,  specially  characterised  by  a  peculiar 
buoyancy  of  step  and  movement  as  he  went  about  his 
pastoral  duties,  his  arm  linked  in  that  of  his  secretary. 

In  spite  of  the  marvellous  attainments  of  his  school 
and  University  career,  there  was  nothing  about  him  which 
suggested  the  traditional  student,  "  sicklied  o'er  with  the 
pale  cast  of  thought."  He  had  no  affinity  with  the 
recluse,  but  was  in  its  truest  sense  a  man  of  the  world, 
finding  his  inspiration  in  life's  human  contacts  and 
sympathies,  seeking  not  so  much  to  renounce  as  to 
reclaim  the  world,  regarding  our  earth  less  as  a  wilderness 
or  a  battlefield  than  a  garden  in  which  man  might  still 
trace  God's  footsteps,  and  feel  His  touch.  His  was  a 
genial  and  a  joyous  nature,  and  the  brilliant  intellect  was 
ever  warmed  and  softened  by  the  glow  of  the  kindly 
heart.  It  was  possibly  because  he  was  so  intensely 
"human,"  giving  sympathetic  response  to  the  joys  and 
sorrows  of  existence,  that  he  was  able  so  soon  to  take  the 
place  of  pastor  as  well  as  preacher  to  my  father's  flock, 
for,  as  will  still  be  remembered  by  some,  almost  as  soon 
as  his  dear  friend  and  spiritual  son  was  appointed  to  the 
assistantship.  Dr.  Macduff  left  on  a  tour  to  Palestine 
and  the  East,  leaving  him  as  his  representative.  It  must 
have  been  a  hard  test  to  one  so  new  to  the  ministerial 
ofifice  not  only  to  keep  the  threads  of  church  life  and 
organisation  from  entanglement,  and  to  exercise  the 
wisdom  and  tact  often  learned  only  in  the  school  of 
experience,  but  Sunday  by  Sunday  to  hold  that  great 
congregation  together  by  the  charm  of  his  intellect  and 
eloquence.  But  he  passed  through  it  with  victorious 
success.     Certainly  in  his  case  the  proverb  failed  of  its 


PROBATION  79 

truth,  "  A  prophet  is  not  without  honour  save  in  his  own 
country." 

I  was,  it  may  be,  too  young  at  the  time  to  form  any 
reliable  estimate  of  his  pulpit  gifts,  but  my  impression 
is  that  while  the  poetry  of  his  nature  lent  its  aid,  while 
his  command  of  language  enriched  and  adorned,  while 
his  eloquence  stirred,  and  his  power  of  memory  astounded, 
it  was  his  individuality  and  originality  of  thought  which 
gripped  his  hearers.  Of  course,  from  the  very  first,  not 
only  the  sermon,  but  all  the  chapters,  psalms,  and  hymns 
were  committed  to  memory,  and  I  can  remember  no 
instance  of  even  a  hesitancy  in  this  respect.  I  do  not 
know  what  may  have  been  the  habitude  of  his  later  days, 
but  at  that  time  Dr.  Matheson  was  always  seated  in  the 
pulpit  before  the  congregation  assembled.  It  appears  to 
me  that  his  manner  was  a  quiet  one.  As  he  rose  to  give 
out  the  first  hymn,  or  at  the  beginning  of  a  fresh  para- 
graph or  division,  the  head  would  be  well  thrown  back 
with  a  motion  peculiar  to  him,  but  he  used  very  little 
action,  his  words  being  usually  emphasised  only  by  a 
uniform  and  slightly  persistent  forward  movement  of  one 
delicate  hand.  In  my  childish  and  girlish  days  his  great 
deprivation  always,  in  ordinary  life,  pathetically  appealed 
to  me,  but  I  have  no  consciousness  of  this  being  the  case 
when  he  occupied  the  pulpit.  I  only  mention  the  fact, 
because  it  goes  to  prove  how  completely  his  mental  and 
spiritual  qualities  overcame  and  outshone  physical  dis- 
abilities. 

At  the  time  it  all  appeared  to  me  perfectly  natural, 
but,  looking  back,  it  seems  almost  phenomenal  that  so 
young  a  man  should  at  once  have  achieved  the  position 
he  took  as  a  preacher  and  a  power ;  not  less  so  that  my 
father,  ever  scrupulously  anxious  for  the  well-being  of 
his  people,  should  without  hesitancy  or  anxiety  have 
committed  them  to  his  care.  Doubtless  much  that 
others  learn  gradually  in  the  discipline  of  life,  he  had 
already  mastered  in  that  of  early  trial,  his  own  affliction 
putting  him  at  once  in  touch  with  the  sorrows  of  others, 
his  deprivation  with  their  losses,  his  victorious  struggles 
with  their  hopes. 


80  PROBATION 

I  feel  that  no  reference,  however  slight,  to  any  portion 
of  Dr.  Matheson's  youthful  life  would  be  complete,  did 
it  not  suggest  that,  while  his  own  genius  secured  his 
rank  as  preacher,  and  his  early  trial  conduced  to  his 
success  as  pastor,  there  was  one  external  influence  and 
aid  without  which  he  would  not  have  been  what  he  was. 
It  was,  in  those  Glasgow  times  of  long  ago,  an  open 
secret  that  one  stood  by  his  side  in  the  school  and 
college  days  which  led  up  to  the  pulpit  and  the  pastorate, 
who  was  indeed  "  eyes  to  the  blind,"  and  often,  as  in  the 
old  story  of  David  and  Jonathan,  "  strengthened  his  hand 
in  God."  To  that  gentle  and  gifted  lady  all  those  who 
have  been  inspired  by  Dr.  Matheson's  teaching  owe  a 
deep  and  lasting  debt.  From  early  morning  till  night's 
last  shadow  fell,  she  was  the  good  angel  of  his  life. 

The  most  happy  and  sympathetic  relationship  between 
my  father  and  his  young  and  valued  coadjutor  was  dis- 
solved by  Dr.  Matheson's  translation  to  the  church  and 
parish  of  Innellan.  But  though  the  bond  of  close  per- 
sonal intercourse  and  mutual  work  was  all  too  soon 
broken,  the  golden  links  of  friendship  were  only  riveted 
more  closely  by  the  lapse  of  years,  and  severed  alone  by 
death. 

Now  both  have  passed  away  to  that  land  where 
kindred  souls  are  reunited  in  kindred  service.  Of  the 
afterglow  of  that  beautiful  friendship  which,  because  I 
was  my  father's  daughter,  Dr.  Matheson  from  the  warmth 
of  his  generous  heart  bestowed  on  me  since  he  left  us  who 
was,  as  he  wrote,  "  also  to  him  a  father,"  it  is  not  for  me  to 
speak  here.  I  can  only  in  thought  twine  with  his  memory 
a  wreath  of  amaranth  and  forget-me-not,  and  write, 
"  Mine  own  fi'iend  and  my  father' s  friend^  ^ 

That  Miss  Macduff  In  her  closing  paragraphs 
had  good  grounds  for  emphasising  the  close 
relationship  that  existed  between  her  father  and 
Dr.  Matheson,  until  death  divided  them,  will  be 
seen  from  the  two  following  letters,  written  when 
Dr.   Macduff  was  on  his  deathbed.      On  hearlnof 


PROBATION  81 

of  his  friend's  serious  illness,  Dr.  Matheson  wrote 
to  Miss  Macduff  as  follows  : 

19  St.  Bernard's  Crescent,  Edinburgh, 
March  14,  1895. 

I  cannot  tell  you  what  a  shock  I  received  this  morning 
on  hearing  of  the  illness  of  one  who  has  been  to  me 
associated  with  life  itself.  Your  dear  father  is  the  one 
who  gave  me  my  first  sense  of  literary  beauty,  my  first 
impression  of  oratory,  my  first  idea  of  sanctity,  my  first 
real  conviction  of  the  beauty  of  Christianity.  The  tones 
of  his  voice  are  even  now  unconsciously  reproduced  in  my 
own.  I  have  retained  more  of  his  pulpit  influence  than 
that  of  any  other  teacher.  I  am  myself  slowly  recovering 
from  a  sharp  attack  of  influenza,  and  I  am  still  so  weak 
that  writing  is  extremely  difficult,  but  I  would  not  feel 
happy  if  I  did  not  speak  out  the  grief  that  is  in  me. 

To   this    Dr.    Macduff   dictated   the  following 

reply  : — 

Ravenswood,  Chislehurst,  Kent, 
March  18,  1895. 

God  bless  you  !  I  am  very  ill,  and  can  still  only  speak 
in  a  whisper,  but  I  cannot  resist  telling  you  how  at  this 
season  of  great  infirmity  you  have  strengthened,  en- 
couraged, stimulated,  by  assuring  me  that  the  echoes  still 
linger  of  these  dear  old  Sandyford  days.  I  was  proud  of 
you  as  one  of  my  flock.  My  days  are  numbered,  but  you 
have  a  great  future  before  you.  May  you  live  to  iniierit 
its  crowns  and  encouragements. 

It  is  important  to  mark  his  theological  stand- 
point during  this  early  period,  and  to  trace  the 
stages  in  his  religious  growth.  To  enable  us  to  do 
this  I  cannot  do  better  than  give  a  synopsis  of,  and 
an  extract  from,  his  first  sermon.     The  text  is  the 

37th  Psalm,  6th  verse  :  '*  And  He  shall  bring  forth 
6 


82  PROBATION 

thy  righteousness  as  the  light,"  and  the  subject  is 
'*  The  Manifestation  of  Practical  Christianity."  At 
the  close  of  the  sermon  there  is  this  brief  summary 
of  its  contents  : 

Has  not  God  been  kinder  to  matter  than  to  mind  ?  Why 
does  He  not  say  to  the  latter  as  to  the  former,  "  Let  there 
be  light "  ?  Because  He  wanted  from  man  precisely  what 
the  previous  creation  could  not  give — a  life  ruled  not  by 
law,  but  by  the  voluntary  choice  of  love.  Yet  while  they 
are  different  in  their  origin,  they  are  one  in  their  manifesta- 
tion. Light  is  at  once  the  most  heavenly  and  the  most 
secular  object;  above  other  things,  yet  gaining  its  beauty 
from  reflecting  them.  Compare  it  with  the  life  of  Christ 
and  with  spiritual  life  in  general.  Worldly  diffusiveness 
does  not  degrade  God's  Spirit.  The  spirit  of  poetry  in  the 
heart  manifests  itself  not  merely  in  grand  works,  but  un- 
consciously in  the  most  commonplace  acts. 

Here  is  a  passage  in  the  sermon,  in  which  he 
compares  natural  light  to  the  light  of  Christ  in  the 
soul : 

Perhaps  the  most  prominent  feature  of  resemblance  is  the 
idea  of  a  permeating  power,  of  a  capacity  to  blend  with 
all  scenes  and  with  all  circumstances.  For  I  ask  you  to 
consider  for  a  moment  how  close  is  the  point  of  analogy 
between  the  glory  of  the  Father  above  and  the  glory  of 
the  Son  within.  Of  all  physical  existences  light  is  at 
once  the  most  heavenly  and  the  most  secular.  It  comes, 
indeed,  from  a  height  which  imagination  cannot  measure. 
No  astronomic  power  has  ever  soared  so  high  as  to  trace 
the  source  of  that  wonderful  essence.  Away  beyond  the 
farthest  star,  beyond  the  utmost  flight  of  fancy,  lies  its 
hidden,  its  mysterious  seat.  Its  going  forth  is  from  the 
remotest  heaven,  and  its  circuit  is  unto  the  end  of  it.  And 
yet  how  it  descends  to  the  commonplace,  how  accessible 
it  is ;  how  practical,  universal,  all  embracing  is  its 
influence.     It  goes  forth  into  the  rough,  rude,  everyday 


PROBATION  83 

world  ;  it  visits  the  meanest  haunts  of  men  ;  it  gilds  the 
mart  of  commerce  and  the  scene  of  toil,  the  exchange,  the 
counting-house,  and  the  workshop.  It  touches  the  most 
prosaic  objects  and  converts  them  into  gold.  It  blends 
with  the  smoke  and  dust  of  the  great  city,  dispelling  its 
dense  mists  and  chasing  away  its  gloomy  vapours,  yet 
gathering  not  a  stain  upon  its  spotless  beams.  And  there 
is  no  parallel  to  its  boundless  catholicity ;  unconscious  of 
all  partiality  it  looks  up  as  proudly  from  the  lowly  vale  as 
down  from  the  haughty  hill ;  it  rests  as  brightly  on  the 
desert  wildflower  as  on  the  palace  dome. 

Now  compare  this  description  for  a  moment  with  the 
outward  course  of  that  mysterious  Being  who  was  em- 
phatically the  external  embodiment  of  evangelical  religion  ; 
that  true  Light  which  more  than  eighteen  centuries  ago 
flashed  through  this  little  world.  He  came  from  far 
heights  of  majesty,  yet  His  rise  was  not  a  sudden  glare  of 
noonday,  but  the  morning  beam  of  childhood  ;  soft,  gentle, 
unpretentious.  No  rustling  in  the  folds  of  night  announced 
the  coming  of  the  dayspring  from  on  high.  Unseen, 
unknown,  He  rose  into  youth  amidst  the  hills  of  Galilee, 
and  even  when  He  entered  on  His  grand  career.  He  spread 
like  the  sun  through  earth's  most  common  ways.  For 
mark  how  broad  a  path  was  His  ;  how  to  every  heart  He 
brought  warmth  and  peace  and  comfort.  How  every  affec- 
tion of  our  nature  went  out  to  meet  Him.  Joy  with  its 
marriage  bells;  sorrow  with  its  sickness,  its  bereavements,  its 
poverty ;  intellect  with  its  scribes  and  pharisees  ;  love  with 
its  alabaster  box  of  ointment ;  friendship  with  its  house  at 
Bethany ;  penitence  with  its  poor  desolate  Magdalene, — 
He  had  an  affection  and  a  word  for  all.  Every  pulse  of 
His  spirit  reverberated  to  universal  humanity ;  to  laughing 
childhood  and  thoughtful  manhood ;  to  festive  happiness 
and  to  overwhelming  sorrow;  to  the  dear  delights  of 
kindred  and  family  and  home ;  to  the  social  intercourse  of 
a  Lazarus  and  the  benign  companionship  of  a  John.  No 
gloomy,  ascetic,  narrow,  circumscribed  religion,  but  a  piety 
whose  gladness  was  another's  joy,  whose  grief  another's 
pain,  and  whose  mightiest  impulse  that  universal  charity 
beneath  whose  heaven  all  nature  is  made  bright. 


84  PROBATION 

One  can  see  at  a  glance  In  this  brief  extract 
the  exuberant  style  of  youth.  Subsequent  years 
brought  restraint,  but  the  interest,  for  us,  lies  in  the 
theological  standpoint.  It  is  that  of  half  a  century 
ago.  The  young  preacher  struck  the  note  with 
which  he  had  been  familiar  in  Sandyford  pulpit 
and  elsewhere  from  his  boyhood.  The  tone  of  the 
discourse  is  thoroughly  evangelical.  Matheson  had 
not  as  yet  begun  to  reflect  seriously  upon  the 
contents  of  the  Gospels,  or  to  interpret  their  meaning 
for  himself.  The  speculative  theories  with  which 
Caird  and  his  own  reading  had  made  him  familiar 
were  not  to  bear  fruit  until  a  later  day.  The 
other  sermons  which  he  wrote  during  his  probationer 
days  are  cast  In  much  the  same  mould  as  this  one. 
There  Is  undoubtedly  an  originality  and  freshness 
about  them  which  must  have  distinguished  them 
from  the  productions  of  his  youthful  contemporaries. 
They  also  possess  that  beauty  of  style  which  was 
to  characterise  all  his  subsequent  writing.  There 
is  no  mistaking  his  meaning,  his  thoughts  are 
distinctly  conceived  and  clearly  expressed,  and  a 
logical  sequence  links  together  each  step  in  the 
argument,  which  is  brightened  up  by  apt  and  telling 
illustrations.  We  have  in  these  early  sermons  the 
talent  necessary  for  the  making  of  a  great  preacher  ; 
all  that  is  wanting  Is  the  spirit.  We  feel  that  once 
the  author  begins  to  think  for  himself  on  the  great 
problems  of  religion,  there  would  be  revealed  a 
pulpit  orator  of  the  first  order.  Tradition  after 
having   played   Its  part   must   yield    to   reflection. 


PROBATION  85 

That  also  came;  and  when  it  did,  the  shell  was 
burst,  and  Matheson  soared  forth  fully  fledged,  and 
in  his  daring  flights  carried  his  hearers  to  heights 
before  undreamed  of. 

It  is  important  to  observe  that  from  the  very 
first  day  of  his  ministerial  life  he  was  determined 
to  shrink  from  no  duty  which  his  profession  imposed 
upon  him.  He  resolved  to  be  the  pastor  as  well 
as  the  preacher.  During  Dr.  Macdufl^s  absence 
in  Palestine,  the  whole  care  of  the  congregation 
devolved  upon  him.  In  a  flock  which  numbered 
a  thousand  members,  there  must  have  been  much 
sickness  and  sorrow.  He  could  not  have  been 
an  admirer  of  Pulsford  or  of  Macduff  without 
possessing  the  pastoral  touch.  His  sympathy  at 
all  times  was  quick  and  overflowing,  and  he  never 
failed  to  render  those  services  which  are  due  to 
the  house  of  affliction.  Nor  did  he  neglect  his 
parochial  duties.  Within  a  stone-throw  of  Sandy- 
ford  Church  there  is  a  large  working-class  population. 
At  that  time  it  was  still  in  the  Barony  Parish.  A 
few  years  afterwards  it  was  disjoined  and  erected 
into  the  parish  of  Kelvinhaugh.  During  a  part 
of  Dr.  Macduff s  ministry  he  and  his  Kirk  Session 
relieved  Dr.  Norman  Macleod,  of  the  Barony,  of 
the  charge  of  this  district,  and  it  was  customary 
for  the  Sandyford  assistant  to  conduct  a  prayer- 
meetinp-  in  one  or  other  of  the  houses  in  Kelvin- 
haugh.  This  duty  Matheson  also  discharged  ;  and 
I  remember  him,  a  few  years  before  his  death, 
asking   if  a  family,  which  he  named,  still   resided 


86  PROBATION 

in  the  only  main-door  in  Teviot  Street.  On  my 
replying  that  they  did,  he  said  that  he  was  in  the 
habit,  when  a  probationer,  of  conducting  a  prayer- 
meeting  in  their  house.  His  position  as  an  assistant 
in  Sandyford  Church  was,  however,  to  be  of  short 
duration.  Events  soon  happened  which  transferred 
his  services  to  a  new  sphere,  and  promoted  him  to 
a  charge  of  his  own. 


CHAPTER    V 

MATHESON   OF   INNELLAN 

The  minister  of  Sandyford  had  but  newly  returned 
from  his  tour  in  Palestine  and  the  East,  when  his 
promising  young  assistant  was  elected  minister  of 
Innellan.  The  new  appointment  might  not  on 
the  first  blush  be  regarded  as  a  great  step  in 
advance,  for  Innellan,  at  the  time  of  Matheson's 
election,  was  only  a  Chapel  of  Ease  in  the  parish 
of  Dunoon.  Some  years  had  to  elapse  before  it 
was  erected  into  a  parish,  giving  to  its  incumbent 
the  status  of  a  parish  minister  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland.  It,  however,  had  this  advantage,  that 
the  members  of  the  congregation  had  the  right 
of  election,  and  in  this  respect  they  occupied  a 
position  of  greater  power  and  privilege  than  the 
members  of  the  Parish  Church  of  Dunoon,  of  which 
they  formed,  in  a  way,  a  dependent  part.  The  Act 
of  Disraeli's  Government  which  abolished  patronage 
in  the  Church  of  Scotland  had  not  yet  been  passed, 
and  the  original  parishes,  numbering  between  nine 
hundred  and  a  thousand,  had  to  accept,  subject 
to  certain  ecclesiastical  conditions,  the  nominee  of 

87 


88         MATHESON  OF  INNELLAN 

some  patron.  It  is  futile  to  discuss  whether  this 
was  a  better  system  than  the  one  which  now 
generally  prevails.  It  had  its  advantages  and  its 
disadvantages,  like  everything  that  is  human,  but 
it  says  much  for  Matheson  that,  blind  as  he  was, 
the  first  important  step  in  his  professional  career 
did  not  depend  on  the  patronage  of  any  influential 
man,  but  on  his  own  ability  and  efforts.  He  was 
elected  to  Innellan  on  his  merits.  In  spite  of  his 
physical  disadvantage,  he  was  chosen  the  minister 
of  the  congregation  by  a  popular  vote. 

It  was  most  important,  in  his  case,  that  he 
should  be  appointed  to  a  charge  at  the  earliest 
opportunity.  There  was  naturally  a  strong  pre- 
judice in  the  minds  of  people  against  having  placed 
over  them,  as  their  minister,  one  whose  eyesight 
was  so  seriously  impaired  as  to  render  him 
practically  blind  ;  and  the  congregation  of  Innellan 
were  not  superior  to  a  feeling  which  was  so 
general.  There  was  very  strong  opposition  to  his 
appointment,  and  the  contest  was  so  keen  that 
Matheson's  supporters  only  managed  to  secure  his 
election  by  a  very  narrow  majority.  The  success- 
ful candidate  was  admitted  by  everyone  to  be 
by  far  and  away  the  ablest  and  most  eloquent 
preacher  of  all  the  competitors.  But  he  laboured 
under  one  great  disadvantage,  which  the  older 
members  of  the  congregation  had  not  the  courage 
to  ignore.  Matheson  was  the  chosen  of  the 
younger  section  of  the  church,  who  thought  less 
of  what  was   expected   of  a  minister,    out  of  the 


MATHESON  OF  INNELLAN         89 

pulpit,  than  in  it.  His  approved  talents  and 
preaching  gifts  were  to  them  of  far  more  conse- 
quence than  the  discharge,  according  to  use  and 
wont,  of  the  petty  details  of  ministerial  duty.  As 
after  events  proved,  Matheson  fulfilled  these  duties 
with  a  promptitude,  a  grace,  and  a  success  that 
ministers  with  the  most  perfect  eyesight  would 
have  difficulty  in  excelling.  That,  however,  had 
still  to  be  shown,  and  while  giving  our  cordial 
support  to  his  youthful  admirers,  we  cannot  alto- 
gether blame  those  who  experienced  some  hesitation 
in  welcoming  him  as  their  minister. 

There  was  one  element  in  the  election  which 
must  have  had  some  weight  in  producing  the  final 
result.  Matheson  was  no  stranger  to  many  of 
the  people.  His  family  had  been  in  the  habit  of 
making  Innellan  their  summer  quarters  for  some 
years.  Their  genial  and  kindly  relation  to  the 
villagers  had  made  them  popular,  and  this  helped 
to  break  down  to  a  large  extent  the  prejudice 
that  prevailed.  It  is  not  at  all  unlikely  that,  had 
Matheson  appeared  in  the  pulpit  of  Innellan  for  the 
first  time  as  an  absolute  stranger,  his  transcendent 
talent  and  eloquence  might  have  been  of  no  avail. 
Those  who  are  accustomed  to  the  ways  of  Scotch 
congregations  at  election  times  know  how  little 
turns  the  scale.  Anything  in  the  personal  appear- 
ance of  the  candidate,  in  his  tone  of  voice,  in  his 
gesture,  even  in  his  dress,  may  make  or  mar  him. 
He  may  come  before  them  with  the  most  powerful 
credentials,  he  may  preach  like  another  Chrysostom; 


90         MATHESON  OF  INNELLAN 

but  if  a  slight  peculiarity  tickles  the  fancy,  or  offends 
the  taste,  of  his  rustic  hearers,  his  fate,  for  weal  or 
woe,  is  sealed.  No  one  knew  this  better  than 
Matheson  himself,  and  he  was  in  the  habit  of 
telling  some  stories  in  illustration.  On  one  occasion 
he  was  introducino^  a  friend  to  his  new  cono^regfa- 
tion.  The  church  was  crowded,  even  the  passages 
and  pulpit  stairs  were  lined  with  people.  Matheson, 
on  leaving  the  pulpit  at  the  close  of  the  service, 
had  some  difficulty  in  piloting  his  way  to  the 
vestry.  An  aged  lady,  and  a  warm  admirer,  seized 
him  by  the  hand,  and  whispered  so  loudly  in  his 
ear  as  to  be  heard  by  many  others  :  *'  I  voted  for 
Mr.  P."  (naming  the  new  minister)  *' not  because 
I  thought  he  was  the  best  preacher,  but  I  kenned 
he  was  a  puir  widower  wi'  four  mitherless  bairns." 
He  was  also  in  the  habit  of  telling  the  following 
story.  The  minister  of  an  Ayrshire  parish  secured 
his  appointment  for  the  following  reasons  (nar- 
rated by  a  representative  farmer,  who,  after  the 
election,  was  discussing  the  matter  with  a  friend) : — 
*'  In  giving  out  the  psalms  and  hymns,  he  repeated 
the  number  and  the  verse  twice ;  we  liked  that. 
In  the  middle  of  his  sermon  an  old  woman  was 
boasting  badly,  and  he  stopped  until  she  was 
done  ;  and  we  liked  that.  Then,  again,  when  the 
congregation  skailed  and  he  passed  us  on  the  road 
frae  the  kirk,  he  did  not  baud  his  head  in  the  air, 
like  some  of  the  other  young  upstarts,  but  he 
bowed,  lifted  his  hat,  and  bade  us  guid-day;  and 
we   liked    that :  and    for   these    three   reasons   we 


MATHESON  OF  INNELLAN         91 

voted  for  him."  Such  are  the  whimsicalities  of 
popular  election  ;  and  the  choice  of  a  candidate,  who 
under  the  present  system  has  to  engage  in  a 
preaching  match  over  his  less  fortunate  rivals,  is 
no  guarantee  whatever  that  he  is  the  abler  minister 
or  the  better  man.  Should  any  certificate  of  merit 
have  been  necessary  in  Matheson's  case,  his  ability 
to  subdue,  by  his  preaching,  the  strong  and  not 
unreasonable  prejudice  that  prevailed  against  him 
may  surely  be  regarded  as  a  sufficient  one. 

The  young  minister  left  Sandyford  with  the 
heartiest  good  wishes  on  the  part  of  minister,  office- 
bearers, and  people,  and  with  the  following  extract 
of  minute  from  the  Kirk  Session  records  : — 

At  a  meeting  of  Sandyford  Church  Session  held 
in  the  vestry  on  Monday,  November  4,  1867 — 

Inter  alia, — A  letter  was  read  by  the  Moderator  from 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Matheson,  intimating  his  appointment  to  the 
Church  of  Innellan,  and  resigning  his  situation  of  assistant 
and  missionary  in  connection  with  Sandyford  Church. 

The  Kirk  Session,  while  accepting  the  same,  beg  to 
enter  on  their  minutes  the  expression  of  their  high  satis- 
faction with  Mr.  Matheson's  labours,  and  especially  desire 
to  record  their  warm  appreciation  of  his  pulpit  services  dur- 
ing the  Moderator's  absence  in  Palestine  and  the  East. 

Extracted  by 

William  Brown, 
Session  Clerk. 

Innellan  Church  was  built  fifteen  years  before 
Matheson's  appointment  to  the  charge.  It  was 
opened  in  the  autumn  of  1853  by  the  Rev.  Dr. 
M'Culloch  of  the  West  Parish,  Greenock,  one  of 
the   most    eloquent   preachers   in    the    Church    of 


92         MATHESON  OF  INNELLAN 

Scotland.     It  was  a  modest  building,  pretty  much 
in  the  form  of  a  chancel,  but,  so   far  as  it  went, 
correct  in  design  and  form.     It  was  at  the  time, 
however,  quite  large  enough  to  hold  the  congrega- 
tion,   for    Innellan    was    then    in    its    youth.     A 
generation    earlier    it  was   in    its    infancy,   and   a 
generation  earlier  still  it  was  as  a  residential  district 
non-existent.     Anyone    sailing    up    the    Firth    of 
Clyde  at  the  beginning  of  last  century,  and  looking 
towards  Innellan,  would  have  his  outlook  arrested 
by  a  line  of  bleak  hills,  fringed  on  the  foreshore 
by  a  few  green  fields  and  clumps   of  wild  wood, 
with  here   and   there  a  primitive  farmhouse  or   a 
shepherd's  shieling.     It  might  strike  the  wayfarer 
as  a  place  possessing  great  possibilities,  but  its  day 
had  not  come.     It  had  not  long  to  wait,  for  with 
the  prosperity  of   Glasgow   came  its  opportunity. 
That  rapidly  growing  city  made  every  year  fresh 
and  increasing  demands  upon  the  shores  of  the 
Firth  of  Clyde,  for  accommodation  for  its  inhabitants, 
during  the  months  of  summer.     The  smoke,  and 
dust,  and  din,  amid  which  the  citizens  had  to  work 
and  live  during  the  greater  part  of  the  year,  drove 
them,  when  the   spring-time  came,  to  seek  purer 
air  and  recreation  at  one  or  other  of  the  waterinof- 
places  within  reach  of  the  city.     No  town  in  the 
United  Kingdom  is  so  fortunate  in  this  respect  as 
Glasgow.     Thirty  miles  from  the  Broomielaw  are 
to  be  found  as  sweet  retreats  for  the  jaded  man 
of  business  as  can  be  found,  not  only  in  any  part 
of  Scotland,  but  in  any  other  country  in  the  world. 


MATHESON  OF  INNELLAN         93 

The  shores  of  the  Firth  of  Clyde  seemed  to 
have  been  devised  by  a  special  Providence  for  the 
recreation  of  the  Glasgow  merchant  and  his  family. 
And  soon  there  began  to  be  erected  along  them 
pretty  villas,  which,  year  after  year,  attracted  to 
them  those  who  sought  refreshment  and  respite,  for 
a  few  months,  from  the  labour  and  strain  of  their 
business  life.  By  the  middle  of  last  century  one 
of  the  most  popular  of  these  summer  retreats 
was  Innellan.  Nor  will  anyone  who  has  resided 
at  it  feel  any  surprise  at  its  popularity.  From 
the  lawn  in  front  of  the  manse,  which,  with 
the  church  beside  it,  crowns  the  hill  that  over- 
looks the  village,  one's  eye  rests  on  a  scene 
as  briorht  and  winninor  as  is  to  be  found  in 
Scotland.  Looking  to  the  left,  due  east  almost, 
the  hills  of  Cowal  are  seen  merging  into  the 
mountains  that  guard  the  entrance  to  Loch  Goil 
and  Loch  Long ;  and  the  shores  of  Kilcreggan 
seem  to  close  the  mouth  of  the  Gareloch  and  the 
estuary  of  the  Clyde.  In  front,  and  straight  south, 
one  looks  on  Skelmorlie  and  the  Ayrshire  coast. 
The  most  inspiring  view  is  to  the  west,  where  the 
broad  waters  of  the  Firth  flow  into  the  Irish 
Channel  ;  the  far-stretching  sea  broken  by  the  Isle 
of  Cumbrae,  Toward  Point,  the  low  hills  of  Bute  ; 
in  the  distance  the  high  peaks  of  Arran  and,  stand- 
ing solitary  as  a  sentinel  in  mid-channel,  Ailsa 
Craig. 

The  first   minister  of   Innellan  was   the    Rev. 
Robert  Horn,  who  after  a  brief  stay  was    elected 


94         MATHESON  OF  INNELLAN 

to  the  charge  of  Slamannan.  He  was  succeeded 
by  the  Rev.  Martin  Peter  Ferguson,  who  also 
remained  but  a  short  time.  In  a  few  years  he 
was  chosen  to  be  minister  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church,  Buenos  Ayres.  The  first  who  made  a 
distinct  impression  on  the  district  was  the  Rev. 
William  Porteous.  He  came  in  1862.  One  of  the 
earliest  recollections  of  my  childhood  is  being  sent 
to  inquire  for  the  minister,  who  at  the  time  (1865) 
was  on  his  deathbed.  He  had  been  the  subject  of 
a  ruthless  persecution.  The  young  minister  of 
Innellan  won  the  hearts  of  the  people  by  the 
transparency  of  his  character  and  by  his  generous 
and  enthusiastic  interest  in  all  that  concerned  them. 
He  had  a  striking  appearance ;  his  tall  spare  form, 
pale  countenance,  and  jet  black  curling  hair,  would 
have  made  him  a  conspicuous  figure  anywhere. 
He  was  full  of  nervous  energy,  and  in  the  pulpit 
his  matter  and  manner  were  attractive  in  the 
extreme.  A  vacancy  happening  at  the  time  in 
Bellahouston  Church,  in  the  parish  of  Govan,  he 
was  chosen  its  minister  by  the  votes  of  the  con- 
gregation. Bellahouston  at  that  time  occupied  in 
relation  to  the  Parish  Church  of  Govan  much 
the  same  position  as  Innellan  did  in  relation  to 
Dunoon.  The  ministers  of  both  parishes  had 
certain  rights  over  the  subordinate  charges,  if  they 
cared  to  exercise  them.  This  the  parish  minister 
of  Govan,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Leishman,  determined  to 
do  in  the  present  instance.  He  objected  to  the 
appointment  of  Mr.  Porteous  on  the  ground,  it  was 


MATHESON  OF  INNELLAN         95 

generally  supposed  at  the  time,  of  a  preference  for 
a  friend  of  his  own.  The  charge  which  he  made 
against  him,  however,  was  one  of  plagiarism,  and 
he  prosecuted  the  young  minister  through  the 
various  courts  on  to  the  General  Assembly.  The 
case,  if  I  mistake  not,  came  up  before  two  General 
Assemblies.  The  final  result  was  a  victory  for  Mr. 
Porteous,  but  it  was  a  Pyrrhic  victory ;  it  was 
worse  than  defeat,  for  before  the  day  of  induction 
to  his  hard-won  charge  he  was  dead.  The  strain 
and  the  odium  connected  with  the  prosecution  so 
affected  his  sensitive  nature  and  his  delicate  frame 
that  he  succumbed  and  died.  Never  was  a  con- 
gregation so  affected  by  the  death  of  a  minister  as 
was  that  of  Innellan.  There  are  still  livine  those 
who  cannot  speak  of  the  sad  event  without  deep 
sorrow,  in  which  there  is  a  feeling  of  bitterness  and 
resentment  against  him  who  did  so  cruel  a  wrong  to 
one  who  was  innocent,  and  who  promised  to  be  a 
bright  and  leading  light  in  the  Church  of  Scotland. 
Mr.  Porteous  was  succeeded  in  1865  by  the  Rev. 
James  Donald,  now  Dr.  Donald  of  Keithhall. 
He  was  also  most  successful  and  much  beloved, 
and  under  him  the  church  prospered  so  greatly 
that  it  had  to  be  enlarged.  The  work  was 
carried  out  in  the  winter  of  1866-67,  ^^^  was 
so  arranged  that,  while  the  extension  was  tak- 
ing place,  the  congregation  was  able  to  worship 
in  the  church  as  usual.  Dr.  Donald  was  trans- 
lated to  his  present  charge  in  the  summer  of 
1868,  when  he  was  succeeded  by  Matheson,  under 


96         MATHESON  OF  INNELLAN 

whose  ministry  the  fame  of   Innellan  reached  its 
climax. 

There  are  three  events  in  connection  with  the 
settlement  of  a  Scottish  minister  to  his  charge 
which  are  of  supreme  importance  to  him  and  to 
his  people.  These  are  the  ordination,  the  ordina- 
tion dinner,  and  his  formal  introduction  to  the 
congregation  on  the  following  Sunday  by  his  most 
trusted  friend.  It  is  rather  sad,  in  looking  over 
the  list  of  the  members  of  the  Dunoon  Presbytery 
who  took  part  in  the  ordination  service  on  the  8th 
April  1868,  and  who  were  present  at  the  subsequent 
dinner,  that  all  of  them,  with  one  exception,  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Bain  of  Duthil,  are  dead.  I  question  if 
any  of  the  laity  who  were  present  are  still  living. 
But  the  occasion  was  one  of  deep  interest,  and  a 
united  and  hearty  welcome  was  offered  to  the  new 
minister.  At  the  dinner  in  the  evening,  at  which 
the  Presbytery  with  numerous  friends  were  enter- 
tained, the  young  minister  in  replying  to  the  toast 
of  his  health  spoke  as  follows  : 

There  are  moments  in  the  Hves  of  all  in  which  we 
seem  to  pause  between  the  past  and  the  future,  preparing 
to  advance  yet  looking  back  to  bid  farewell ;  and  such  a 
moment  has  now  arrived  for  me.  Behind  there  is  a  back- 
ground of  vivid  memory ;  before  there  is  a  prospect  of  stern 
responsibility.  I  will  not  meet  the  new  without  a  closing 
glance  at  the  old.  The  retrospect  I  speak  of  is  cast  in  no 
distant  scene.  It  is  within  hearing  of  your  ever  sounding 
shore,  within  sight  of  your  perpetual  hills.  It  seems  but 
yesterday  since  you  and  I  met  together  in  a  very  different 
relationship,  not  as  the  pastor  and  the  people,  but  only  as 
mutual  friends,  prepared  to  render  to  another  the  honour 


MATHESON  OF  INNELLAN         97 

you  have  conferred  on  me.  When  last  I  stood  in  this  apart- 
ment it  was  to  celebrate  the  ordination  of  my  esteemed  and 
able  predecessor,  now  minister  of  Keithhall.  To  you,  whose 
sympathies  have  followed  him  to  his  new  abode,  the  coinci- 
dence must  be  a  pleasing  one,  and  the  association  with  this 
night's  proceedings  will  come  like  a  last  ray  of  the  past 
summer  which  has  wandered  back  into  our  April  showers. 

Perhaps,  too,  there  are  some  here  to-night  whose 
memories  are  travelling  further  back  still,  to  the  ministry 
of  one  who,  though  outwardly  dead,  is  yet  living  and 
breathing  in  the  hearts  of  all ;  whose  life,  so  short  in  its 
duration,  was  yet  so  long  in  its  intensity,  so  brief  and  yet 
so  crowded,  so  unfortunate  and  yet  so  fraught  with  lasting 
power ;  sealed,  too,  by  a  fate  so  untimely  and  so  sorrow- 
ful, has  rendered  him  for  ever  devotedly  beloved.  I  do 
not  call  back  these  shadows  from  the  past  that  I  may 
contrast  them  with  the  present,  but  rather  that  I  may 
catch  the  mantle  which  falls  from  the  vanished  years. 
My  predecessors  have  left  indelible  footprints,  and  these 
footprints  I  would  like  to  make  my  guide.  And,  Gentle- 
men, never  was  there  an  age  in  which  the  preacher  had 
more  need  of  a  guide,  whether  from  books  or  men.  From 
every  grade  of  rank  and  station,  from  every  sphere  of 
profession  and  calling,  from  every  tinge  of  character  and 
life,  alike  from  the  palace  homes  of  luxury  and  from  the 
rudest  hamlet  on  the  mountain-side,  there  is  going  forth  the 
one  united  voice — the  demand  for  intellectual  enlighten- 
ment. Reason,  recognising  that  bread  is  her  birthright, 
refuses  any  longer  to  be  satisfied  with  a  stone.  They  tell 
us  in  these  days  that  the  pulpit  has  declined,  say,  rather, 
that  the  laity  have  advanced.  The  beach  has  not  receded 
but  the  waves  of  the  great  sea  have  rolled  up  and  covered 
half  its  glory.  The  candle  is  not  more  dim,  but  the 
surrounding  sunshine  has  absorbed  its  brightness.  The 
Church  has  not  lost  its  pristine  power,  but  the  spread  of 
universal  power  has  robbed  it  of  its  contrast. 

The  preacher  of  our  day  must  be  a  man  not  only  of 
universal  knowledge,  but,  to  some  extent,  of  universal 
nature  too.  In  him  must  be  blended  something  of  the 
lives   of   all    men.     There    must    be   the   depths    of  the 

7 


98         MATHESON  OF  INNELLAN 

philosopher's  thought,  with  the  simplicity  of  the  child's 
expression ;  the  inquiring  mind  of  manhood,  with  the 
pensive  faith  of  declining  years ;  the  speculative  strength 
of  youth,  with  a  hallowed,  chastened,  humble  sense  of 
feebleness.  There  must  be  argument  for  the  doubting 
and  confirmation  for  the  trustful,  encouragement  for  the 
fearing  and  approbation  for  the  brave,  gentleness  for  the 
erring  and  sympathy  with  the  strong,  and  boundless, 
deathless  charity  for  all.  He  who  has  entered  the  Church 
has  become  a  student  of  the  noblest  academy;  not  the 
mere  college  of  sciences,  but  the  university  of  souls.  His 
books  must  be  selected,  not  merely  from  the  dead  letters 
of  a  printed  page,  but  from  the  living  indelible  epistles  of  a 
myriad  of  human  hearts.  Gentlemen,  in  you  I  recognise 
the  subjects  of  my  future  study.  It  is  said  by  them  of  old 
time  that  the  minister  is  the  teacher  of  the  people ;  I  think 
that  in  all  which  is  worthy  to  be  known  the  people  are 
the  teachers  of  the  minister.  But  little  acquainted,  as  yet, 
with  the  personal  cares  of  life,  young  in  years  and  younger 
in  experience,  I  come  to  find  in  your  cares  that  power 
which  is  perfect  through  suffering;  to  gain  in  your  ex- 
perience that  wisdom  which  grows  in  favour  alike  with 
God  and  man ;  and  if  in  long  time  to  come  my  maturing 
mind  shall  give  back  to  you  the  fruits  you  lent  it — if  the 
bread  you  shall  have  cast  on  the  waters  shall  return  to 
you  again  after  many  days — I  will  deem  that,  with  all  its 
frailties  and  shortcomings  and  imperfections,  my  ministry 
in  Innellan  shall  not  have  proved  in  vain. 

It  will  be  evident  from  this  brilliant  speech 
that  Matheson  had  now  reached  that  maturity  of 
mind  which  characterised,  for  the  most  part,  all  his 
subsequent  utterances.  The  first  thing  that  strikes 
one  in  his  address  Is  Its  perfect  taste.  The  graceful 
allusions  to  his  two  Immediate  predecessors  are  a 
proof  of  that  generous  recognition  of  the  worth  of 
others  which  was  one  of  the  most  notable  traits  in 
his   nature.     The   spontaneous   manner,   again,  in 


MATHESON  OF  INNELLAN  99 

which  he  throws  himself  upon  the  forbearance  of 
his  new  congregation,  and  the  humble  attitude  he 
assumes  towards  them  as  their  teacher,  won  at 
once  that  confidence  and  loyal  support  which  never 
failed  him.  In  fine,  his  outlook  upon  the  intellectual 
and  religious  needs  of  the  day,  which  called  forth 
all  that  was  highest  and  best  in  the  modern  pulpit, 
showed  that  he  was  thoroughly  alive  to  the  signs 
of  the  times,  and  was  determined  to  spare  no  effort 
in  proving  that  the  resources  of  the  Christian 
religion  were  able  to  supply  the  spiritual  needs  of 
every  man  in  every  age.  Add  to  all  this,  the 
charm  of  style  and  the  power  of  delivery  which 
even  then  he  possessed  in  a  marked  degree,  and  it 
will  require  no  straining  of  the  imagination  to 
conceive  the  effect  which  his  oration  had  upon  his 
hearers.  Everyone  felt  that,  whatever  his  future 
among  them  might  be,  there  could  be  no  doubt  of 
his  brilliant  gifts  of  head  and  heart  and  utterance. 

The  last  of  the  three  supreme  events  in 
Matheson's  settlement  at  Innellan  had  still  to 
take  place.  This  was  his  formal  introduction  to 
his  congregation  on  the  following  Sunday.  To 
whom  should  this  honoured  duty  be  assigned 
but  to  Dr.  Macduff,  the  friend  of  his  youth  and 
his  revered  pastor,  whose  pulpit  too  he  had,  as 
assistant  minister  in  Sandyford,  recently  filled  ? 
Macduff's  name  in  those  days  was  one  to  conjure 
with.  He  was  one  of  the  most  popular  preachers 
in  Scotland,  and  his  reputation  in  the  west  of 
Scotland   was   second  only   to   those   of   Norman 


100       MATHESON  OF  INNELLAN 

Macleod  and  John  Calrd.  The  occasion  was  a 
great  one  for  Innellan.  The  seaside  village  held 
its  head  high  on  that  beautiful  spring  Sunday 
morning,  when  the  hour  of  service  drew  the  people 
from  far  and  near  to  listen  to  Dr.  Macduff  and  to 
celebrate  the  introduction  of  the  young  minister  to 
his  flock.  The  little  church  was  crowded  to  the 
doors  by  a  congregation  representing  the  wealth 
and  culture  of  the  city  and  the  simple  rustic  life  of 
the  village  itself,  and  the  interest  reached  its 
climax  when,  at  the  close  of  the  sermon,  Dr.  Mac- 
duff addressed  the  congreo^ation  as  follows  : 


I  appear  here  to-day  to  discharge  a  pleasing  and 
interesting  duty.  It  is  a  time-honoured  custom  in  our 
Church,  on  the  Sabbath  succeeding  the  solemn  service  of 
ordination,  to  introduce  the  new  minister  to  the  flock  over 
whom  in  God's  providence  he  has  been  placed.  This,  I 
need  not  say,  in  the  present  case  is  almost,  indeed  in  one 
sense,  entirely  superfluous,  as  he  who  now  occupies  that 
sacred  and  endearing  relation  is  one  with  whose  voice  and 
with  whose  friendship  you  are  already  well  famiUar.  I 
do  not  regret,  however,  that  it  has  been  deemed  fitting 
that  there  should  be  no  departure  on  this  occasion  from 
use  and  wont,  as  it  gives  me  the  opportunity  of  expressing 
my  unfeigned  gratification  that  the  day  has  arrived  when 
my  excellent  young  friend  stands  before  you  and  the 
Church  fully  equipped  for  his  great  Master's  service,  and 
for  the  career  of  usefulness  and  blessing  which  I  trust  he 
has  before  him.  If  I  dared  mingle  personal  feeling  with 
a  public  duty,  it  would  be  to  say  that  I  hail  the  advent  of 
this  hour  with  all  the  pride  and  affection  of  one  who  has 
watched  with  tender  interest  the  development  of  your 
pastor's  mind  and  character  from  early  and  precocious 
boyhood.  It  would  be  alike  unnecessary  and  unbecoming 
in  me  in  this  place  to  dilate  on  the  combination  of  natural 
gifts  with  which  he  has  been  endowed,  or  on  that  manful 


MATHESON  OF  INNELLAN        101 

and  heroic  struggle  achieved  over  difficulties  which  to 
most  would  have  been  insurmountable. 

Intellect  and  genius  have  in  these  days  many  ready 
outlets,  and  had  literary  success  been  his  only  aspiration 
few  would  have  more  easily  secured  it  than  he.  But  I 
rejoice  that  with  unwavering  resolution  he  has  adhered  to 
his  early  formed  purpose  of  consecrating  himself  to  the 
service  of  the  Redeemer,  casting  the  gifts  of  nature, 
sanctified  by  grace,  at  the  foot  of  the  Cross,  and  enrolling 
himself  in  that  honoured  band  who  are  embarked  in  that 
angel-work  of  promoting  God's  cause  and  glory. 

I  have  spoken  of  intellectual  acquirements ;  these  are 
undoubtedly  a  vast  possession,  but  they  are  only,  after  all, 
the  part  of  a  great  whole.  The  greatest  mental  gifts  are 
incomplete  without  the  complement  of  higher,  nobler 
qualities.  The  head  is  nothing  without  the  heart.  I 
would  rather  have  the  humblest  mediocrity  of  talent, 
combined  with  tender,  genuine,  unselfish  kindness  and 
sympathy,  than  all  the  intellect  of  the  schools.  I  know 
that  in  my  dear  friend  the  didactic  or  preaching  power  of 
the  pulpit  will  be  accompanied  and  followed  by  the  keen 
and  kindly  sensibilities  of  a  warm  and  affectionate  heart 
in  his  daily  intercourse  with  his  people.  If,  indeed,  there 
is  one  attribute  of  his  nature  more  conspicuous  than 
another,  it  is  his  constant  and  unvarying  cheerfulness,  as 
if  the  dimming  to  him  of  the  outer  world  were  compensated 
by  a  gladder  and  brighter  inner  sunshine.  And  there  is 
yet  one  other  diviner  gift,  which  to  those  who  are  engaged 
in  the  work  of  the  ministry  is  more  precious  still  either 
than  intellectual  power  or  human  kindliness ;  and  this  is 
the  influence  radiating  from  the  spiritual,  regenerated 
being,  the  celestial  unction  of  vital  piety.  This  glorifies 
all  else.  As  it  has  been  beautifully  said,  in  illustrating 
another  subject,  it  is  the  figure  standing  before  the  other 
ciphers  which  invests  them  with  untold  significance  and 
value.  I  believe  you  will  come  soon  to  know  that,  in  the 
case  of  him  who  is  set  over  you  in  the  Lord,  there  is  no 
absence  of  this  crowning  gift. 

While  what  may  be  called  the  young  pulpit  of  Scot- 
land is  too  often  in  these  days  characterised  by  unprofit- 


102       MATHESON  OF  INNELLAN 

able  disquisitions,  giving  heed,  in  the  words  of  St.  Paul,  to 
"  what  minister  to  questions,  rather  than  godly  edifying 
which  is  in  faith,"  your  young  minister  will,  I  think,  give 
you  proof  and  evidence  that  he  values  above  all  the 
teaching  of  the  Cross,  and  that  profound  and  vigorous 
thought  and  apt  illustration  are  not  incompatible  either 
with  simplicity  of  style  and  language,  or  with  evangelical 
fervour. 

May  the  Great  Head  of  the  Church,  with  His  own 
abundant  blessing,  hallow  the  relation  which  from  this 
day  onwards  connects  pastor  and  people.  May  this  con- 
tinue to  be  the  end  of  his  conversation — "  Jesus  Christ  the 
same  yesterday,  to-day,  and  for  ever."  May  he  long  be 
spared  to  be  a  polished  shaft  in  his  Master's  quiver,  and 
after  a  laborious  and  honoured  ministry  receive  the  crown 
which  awaits  the  good  and  faithful  servant. 

The  young  minister  was  thus  launched  upon 
his  new  sphere  under  the  happiest  auspices.  What- 
ever opposition  existed  soon  died  away  ;  his  frank 
and  friendly  attitude  towards  the  people,  apart 
altogether  from  his  commanding  ability  in  the 
pulpit,  speedily  won  the  confidence  and  affection 
of  all  ranks  and  classes.  Indeed,  It  is  a  minister's 
pe^-sonal  relations  to  his  congregation,  his  un- 
affected welcome  of  them  when  they  call,  and  his 
kindly  interest  In  them  when  he  visits  their  homes, 
that  give  him  an  influence  which  his  preaching, 
however  excellent,  would  never  enable  him  to 
secure.  Innellan  was  an  ideal  place  for  a  man 
like  Matheson  to  begin  his  ministry  in.  He  was 
quite  aware  of  this  himself,  for  while  he  was  a 
student  he  declared  on  visiting  it  that  he  would 
like  on  some  future  day  to  be  its  minister.  The 
population    numbered   a   few    hundreds   only ;    for 


MATHESON  OF  INNELLAN        103 

eight  months  In  the  year  there  was  only  one  service, 
and  during  the  other  four  months  he  had  the 
stimulus  of  a  crowded,  intelligent,  and  thoroughly 
appreciative  congregation.  This  made  the  burden 
of  the  second  service  easy,  and  during  the  long 
winter  months  the  anticipation  of  the  summer 
services  kept  him,  if  that  were  necessary,  up  to  the 
mark.  But  he  very  soon  found  that  among  the 
natives  there  were  brains  quite  as  capable,  and 
hearts  as  quick  in  their  responsiveness,  as  among 
the  Glasgow  merchants  and  their  families  who 
composed  the  bulk  of  his  hearers  in  the  summer- 
time. Norman  Macleod  was  in  the  habit  of  saying, 
that  even  in  the  editing  of  Good  Words  the  man 
that  he  always  kept  in  his  eye  and  wrote  up  to 
was  the  level-headed  engineer.  Dr.  Matheson  in 
his  preaching  had  much  the  same  aim,  and  if  at 
any  time  in  his  flights  he  soared  over  the  heads  of 
his  congregation,  there  were  always  present  some 
who  could  follow  him,  though  it  were  at  a  distance, 
and  catch  his  meaning,  even  if  they  could  not 
fully  understand  all  its  bearings  and  significance. 

One  is  able  to  describe,  in  a  word,  the  tenor  of 
Matheson's  life,  in  its  ministerial  aspect,  during 
the  whole  of  his  eighteen  years'  residence  in 
Innellan.  On  the  Sunday  afternoon,  when  the 
day's  work  was  over,  he  would  select  the  text  of 
his  next  sermon,  and  for  a  few  days  following  he 
would  ponder  over  it.  Towards  the  middle  of  the 
week  he  would  begin  to  dictate  it  to  his  secretary, 
and  by  the  Saturday  morning  it  was  done.     As  he 


104       MATHESON  OF  INNELLAN 

himself  was  in  the  habit  of  remarking :  '*  At  the  begin- 
ning of  the  week  it  was  without  form  or  void,  but 
at  the  end  he  was  always  able  to  pronounce  it  to 
be  very  good !  "  This  was  his  habit,  week  in  week 
out,  and  even  when  he  was  on  holiday  he  wrote  his 
sermon,  so  that  he  was  well  in  advance  of  any 
emergency.  In  the  summer-time  he  preached  in 
the  evening  one  of  the  sermons  that  he  had 
delivered  to  his  congregation  during  the  preceding 
winter.  This  was  a  prudent  practice,  for,  as  this 
service  was  attended  almost  entirely  by  strangers 
who  had  never  heard  the  sermon,  it  would  have 
been  a  work  of  supererogation  to  have  composed 
a  fresh  one  specially  for  their  use.  Besides,  as  in 
those  earlier  years,  the  discourse  was  written  out  in 
full,  and  committed  verbatim, — the  composition  and 
memorising  of  two  new  sermons  every  week  would 
have  been  subjecting  himself  to  an  unnecessary 
and  unwise  strain.  He  was  in  the  habit  at  first 
of  reading,  after  the  ordinary  manner,  portions  of 
Scripture  as  a  part  of  the  service,  but  after  a  time 
he  substituted  for  this  a  brief  exposition  of  certain 
passages  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  ;  and 
having  discovered,  both  to  himself  and  to  his 
people,  his  wonderful  faculty  in  this  respect,  he,  to 
their  delight  and  profit,  continued  this  practice  to 
the  end.  His  favourite  book  for  these  addresses 
was  the  Book  of  Psalms,  and  I  have  before  me, 
as  I  write,  several  manuscript  volumes  which  em- 
brace the  whole  of  the  Psalter  and  other  sections 
of  Holy  Writ,  filled  with  these  expository  notes. 


MATHESON  OF  INNELLAN        105 

They  are  so  carefully  done  that  a  man  with  a  touch 
of  Matheson's  mind  and  genius  could  easily  repro- 
duce them. 

It  may  be  of  interest  to  picture  Matheson  as  he 
appeared  in  the  pulpit  of  Innellan  Church  on  any 
Sunday  morning  during  these  memorable  years. 
Take  a  Sunday  in  the  month  of  July  or  of  August, 
when  the  little  place  was  full  of  visitors,  every  villa 
and  cottage  along  the  shore,  from  the  Bullwood  to 
Toward  Point,  being  occupied  by  families  drawn 
from  far  and  near,  but  chiefly  from  the  great  city  of 
the  west.  It  was  a  gay  sight,  and  also  an  impressive 
one,  filling  the  mind  with  what  was  best  in  Scottish 
Sabbath  -  day  observance,  to  see  whole  families 
emerging  from  their  doorways  and  gradually  con- 
centratine  on  the  little  kirk  that  crowned  the  hill. 
The  murmur  of  the  wavelets  as  they  broke  upon 
the  shore,  the  song  of  birds,  and  the  humming  of 
bees  that  clustered  round  the  limes  that  led  to  the 
sanctuary,  were  nature's  sympathy  with  the  service 
of  human  hearts  and  voices  that  was  soon  to  be 
engaged  in,  and  seemed  to  beckon  the  worshippers 
to  the  house  of  God. 

After  the  congregation  was  seated  there  appeared 
from  the  vestry,  through  a  door  immediately  behind 
the  pulpit,  the  young  preacher,  whose  fame,  already 
fast  spreading,  had  drawn  to  hear  him  that  day  as 
representative  and  eager  a  body  of  hearers  as  could 
be  found  in  any  church  in  Scotland.  As  he  stood  up 
one  saw  that  he  was  above  the  middle  height.  He 
had  a  spare  form  and  a  pleasant  ruddy  countenance, 


106       MATHESON  OF  INNELLAN 

and  his  eye,  albeit  unseeing,  had  that  penetrating 
look  which  seemed  to  read  the  secret  thought,  and 
gave  one  the  notion  of  any  other  quality  than  that 
of  blindness.  There  was  a  buoyancy,  a  cheerfulness, 
a  hopefulness  in  his  very  appearance  and  attitude, 
and  a  self-confidence,  the  farthest  removed  from 
self-assertion,  which  put  everyone  at  his  ease.  In 
a  clear  ringing  voice,  which  one  would  characterise 
as  a  rich  baritone,  he  gave  out  the  Psalm  to  be 
sung,  repeating  the  first  verse,  and  then  sitting 
down.  The  opening  prayer  was  a  thing  to  be  re- 
membered. It  consisted,  at  that  time,  of  appropriate 
selections  from  the  English  and  other  prayer-books, 
with  additions  of  his  own,  but  the  manner  in  which 
it  was  offered  up  was  altogether  his  own ;  he 
breathed  into  the  ancient  words  the  breath  of  a 
fervent  spirit,  and  made  the  eternal  desires  of  the 
human  heart  an  offering,  for  the  day  and  hour,  for 
himself  and  those  who  heard  him.  In  later  years 
he  broke  loose  from  the  trammels  of  liturgical  forms, 
and  led  his  congregation  in  those  original  prayers 
which  came  to  be  regarded  as  a  unique  part  of  his 
ministry.  The  other  psalms  and  hymns  were  given 
out  in  the  same  fashion  as  the  first,  and  the  inter- 
cessory prayer  was  quite  as  impressive  as  the  prayer 
of  confession  and  thankso^ivinor. 

The  beadle  on  taking  the  books  to  the  pulpit, 
before  the  appearance  of  the  minister,  always  left 
the  Bible  open  on  the  book-board,  so  that  when 
Matheson  gave  out  the  portions  of  Scripture  to  be 
read  or  expounded,  or  when  he  announced  his  text 


MATHESON  OF  INNELLAN        107 

for  the  day,  he  could  look  down  upon  the  open 
page,  and  without  any  pretence  to  deceive  he  could 
foster  the  illusion  that  he  was  readinsf.  In  this  we 
see  a  touch  of  true  art,  not  only  permissible  but 
commendable,  for  it  prevented  the  minds  of  his 
hearers  being  distracted  from  the  service  and  the 
message  he  had  to  deliver  by  reflections  on  his 
blindness.  Indeed,  to  my  knowledge,  many  have 
heard  him  preach  and  gone  away  with  the  impres- 
sion that  he  could  see  like  other  men.  Accordingly, 
when  he  came  to  read  the  lessons  for  the  day  he 
did  so  as  if  he  were  really  reading  them.  The 
chapter  and  the  verse  were  announced,  and  then 
followed  the  repetition  of  each  word  and  sentence. 
Sometimes  the  passage  was  a  long  one,  but  never 
on  a  single  occasion  was  he  known  to  make  a  slip 
or  a  mistake. 

It  was,  however,  when  he  came  to  his  sermon 
that  the  interest  of  his  hearers  quickened  and 
deepened.  His  discourse  in  those  days  seldom 
lasted  more  than  twenty  minutes,  but  it  was  almost 
always  a  gem  of  the  first  water,  perfect  in  thought, 
in  form,  in  diction,  and  in  delivery.  He  usually 
seized  the  mind  of  his  hearers  in  the  first  sentence. 
He  struck  a  note  which  they  never  thought  of 
before,  but  which  they  felt  to  be  true.  He  even 
then  displayed  his  rare  gift  of  setting  old  texts  in  a 
new  light,  and  giving  a  reading  to  a  well-worn 
passage  which  was  at  once  startling  in  its  freshness 
and  impressive  for  its  truth.  He  opened  up  his 
subject  by  a  brief  and  luminous  introduction,  and 


108       MATHESON  OF  INNELLAN 

by  what  seemed  a  logical  necessity  his  theme  pre- 
sented itself  under  three  heads  or  aspects.  These 
he  would  develop  in  detail,  enforcing  his  points  by 
argument  and  illustration,  each  paragraph  leading 
up  to  the  climax  of  thought  and  impassioned  utter- 
ance, which  swayed  all  breasts.  The  peroration 
was  usually  followed  by  a  brief  application  of  the 
principles  which  his  theme  inculcated.  All  this  was 
done  without  the  slightest  straining  after  effect  :  his 
gestures  were  few,  an  occasional  raising  of  the  right 
hand  and  a  slight  movement  of  the  body  ;  but  one 
felt  that  the  preacher's  heart  and  mind  were  on  fire, 
that  behind  all  there  was  a  restraininor  will  and  a 
commanding  personality.  The  man,  after  all,  was 
felt  to  be  more  than  the  preacher,  and  the  oftener 
he  was  listened  to  the  more  convinced  were  his 
hearers  that  there  was  a  reserve  of  thought  and 
strength  which  could  only  be  exhausted  by  death. 

It  was  not  long  before  he  came  to  be  known  as 
**  Matheson  of  Innellan,"  and  by  the  close  of  his 
ministry  there  his  name  was  as  closely  identified 
with  the  place  as  Frederick  William  Robertson's 
was  with  Brighton.  Summer  after  summer  many 
families  came  to  Innellan  for  the  purpose  mainly 
of  hearing  Matheson  preach.  There  was  one  man 
in  particular  who  for  his  sake  visited  the  seaside 
resort  for  thirteen  years  in  succession.  On  Mathe- 
son's  departure  he  came  no  more.  This  made  the 
preacher  a  valuable  asset  in  the  finances  of  Innellan. 
The  prosperity  of  the  place  depended  entirely  on 
its  popularity  as  a  summer  quarter,  and  it  was  of 


MATHESON  OF  INNELLAN        109 

importance  to  the  people,  who  made  their  living 
largely  by  house-letting,  to  have  as  their  minister 
one  who  proved  so  great  an  attraction.  The 
demand  for  houses  was  unprecedented  ;  the  rents 
were  proportionately  high,  and  the  season  corre- 
spondingly prolonged.  It  is  not  surprising  that 
Mr.  Charles  Turner,  banker  and  session  clerk,  the 
one  man  in  the  place  who  understood  this  aspect 
of  the  life  and  interests  of  the  people  better  than 
any  other  should  declare  that  *'it  was  a  great  loss 
to  Innellan  when  Dr.  Matheson  left,  and  the  people 
knew  this  well.  He  was  our  one  and  great  attrac- 
tion. Visitors  have  often  told  me  that  the  reason 
why  they  came,  summer  after  summer,  was  that 
they  might  sit  and  listen  to  him." 

It  would  be  as  unfair  to  the  people  of  Innellan 
as  it  would  be  untrue  to  fact  to  say  that  this  was 
the  only  reason  why  they  valued  him.  They 
admired  his  preaching,  respected  his  character,  and 
were  proud  of  his  reputation.  He  gave  them  a 
new  ideal  of  religion  ;  he  opened  up  their  minds, 
and  made  them  impatient  of  anything  in  the  way 
of  preaching  that  was  inferior  or  even  commonplace. 
I  remember,  as  a  boy,  being  sent  to  the  pier  on  the 
Saturday  evening  to  watch  the  arrival  of  the  last 
steamer.  My  commission  was  to  see  whether  it 
was  Matheson  himself,  or  a  substitute,  that  landed 
for  the  purpose  of  conducting  the  service  on  the 
following  day.  This  would  very  likely  be  in  the 
late  autumn,  towards  the  close  of  his  holidays.  The 
report  soon  spread,  and  if  it  was  a  stranger  who 


no       MATHESON  OF  INNELLAN 

was  to  officiate  very  few  of  the  villagers  found  their 
way  to  church  that  morning. 

He  soon  beg^an  to  be  much  sought  after  on 
special  occasions.  Whenever  a  liberal  collection 
was  desired  by  the  office-bearers  of  a  church,  the 
minister  of  Innellan  was  approached,  in  order  that 
he  might  give  his  services.  Large  congregations 
gathered  to  hear  him,  first  in  the  west,  and,  as 
his  fame  spread,  in  almost  every  part  of  the  country. 
His  name  became  a  household  word  all  over 
Scotland.  Indeed,  it  speedily  began  to  be  known 
far  beyond  the  borders  of  his  own  country. 
Searchers  after  truth,  men  whose  faith  was 
distressed,  and  others  who  were  interested  in 
spiritual  and  theological  matters,  found  their  way 
to  the  seaside  village,  their  sole  purpose  being  to 
hear  Matheson.  Not  a  few  of  them  eave  an 
account  of  their  impressions  in  one  or  other  of  the 
periodicals  of  the  day.  It  is  thus  that  one  such 
visitor  writes  of  a  Sunday  service  in  Innellan 
Church  : 

I  have  a  delightful  recollection  of  the  day  on  which 
I  first  heard  him,  several  years  ago  now,  when  he  was 
minister  of  Innellan.  It  was  my  privilege,  one  delightful 
Sunday  morning,  to  hear  him  preach  in  his  little  well-filled 
church,  and  I  shall  never  forget  the  freshness,  power,  and 
eloquence  of  his  words  on  that  occasion.  I  went  expect- 
ing to  see  a  venerable  man,  with  "  countenance  sicklied 
o'er  with  the  pale  cast  of  thought,"  and  was  not  a  little 
surprised  to  see  a  man  under  forty,  strong,  ruddy,  possessed 
of  a  voice  of  great  compass  and  power,  and  whose  every 
movement  in  the  pulpit  suggested  a  personality  of  vast 
energy  and  commanding  force,  yet  blended  with  wonderful 


MATHESON  OF  INNELLAN        111 

tenderness  and  graciousness.  He  seemed  to  be  looking 
the  congregation  full  in  the  face,  so  that  it  was  difficult 
to  believe  that  he  had  been,  in  early  life,  deprived  of  the 
great  gift  of  sight.  I  left  the  church  that  September 
morning  wondering  how  it  could  happen  that  a  man  of 
such  splendid  parts  had  never  been  drawn  away  to  some 
larger  sphere.  I  thought  of  the  pulpits  in  Glasgow, 
Edinburgh,  London,  and  other  great  cities,  often  so  in- 
adequately filled,  and  it  seemed  to  me  that  a  moral  wrong 
was  being  inflicted  on  the  Christian  Church,  for  the  services 
of  so  remarkable  and  powerful  a  man  to  be  confined  to  so 
limited  a  sphere. 

Another  visitor  to  Innellan,  writing  a  few  years 
later,  says  : 

I  have  heard  Dr.  Guthrie  and  Principal  Caird,  Norman 
Macleod  and  Principal  Tulloch,  and,  in  the  English  Church, 
the  Bishop  of  Wakefield,  the  Master  of  the  Temple,  Stopford 
Brooke  and  Professor  Momerie,  and  while  not  depreciating 
any  of  those  distinguished  divines,  I  say  that  there  is  a 
power  of  eloquence  wielded  by  Dr.  Matheson  which  places 
him  on  a  level  with  any  or  all  of  them,  while  in  originality 
of  conception,  and  forcible,  quaint  expression,  he  excels 
them  all. 

There  was  a  pastoral  and  practical  side  to 
Matheson's  character  which  found  scope  In  Innellan, 
limited  though  Its  opportunities  were.  He  visited 
his  people,  he  was  most  attentive  In  cases  of  sick- 
ness and  sorrow,  and  he  discharged  the  other 
duties  of  his  calling  with  unfailing  promptitude 
and  punctuality.  His  prayers  at  the  bedside 
inspired  sufferers  with  a  fresh  courage  and  a  new 
hope,  and  the  outpouring  of  his  soul  at  funerals 
bridged  the  gulf  which  separated  the  Here  and 
the    Hereafter,    and    confirmed    the    faith    of   the 


112        MATHESON  OF  INNELLAN 

mourners  in  the  blessed  truth  of  immortality. 
Every  baptismal  service  was  to  him  the  promise 
of  a  new  birth.  He  was  passionately  fond  of 
children,  and  won  his  way  to  the  mother's  heart 
when  he  tenderly  inquired  for  the  ''  wee  things." 
Marriage  bells  were  ever  to  him  bells  of  joy, 
ringing  in  the  larger  hope  for  the  individual  and 
humanity.  The  humblest  member  of  his  flock 
was  received  at  the  Manse  with  a  genial  welcome, 
and  he  honoured  the  social  customs  of  his  people  ; 
himself  setting  the  example  of  moderation  in  all 
things.  During  the  winter  months  he  heartily 
fell  in  with  any  scheme  that  might  be  proposed 
for  the  brightening  of  that  dull  season.  He  fre- 
quently presided  at  social  gatherings  and  delivered 
lectures,  doing  his  best  at  all  times  to  inspire  the 
minds  of  his  people  with  an  earnest  quest  after 
the  hieher  thing^s  of  the  intellect  and  the  heart. 
Nor  did  he  neglect  the  summer  visitors.  He  was 
frequently  seen  in  the  afternoons,  accompanied  by 
his  sister  or  his  secretary,  calling  upon  those  who 
attended  his  church  and  supported  it  by  their 
liberality ;  nor  was  he  loath  to  receive  them  at  his 
own  house,  and  to  entertain  them  with  that 
hospitality  for  which  he,  then  and  afterwards,  was 
so  well  known. 

Matheson  had  not  been  more  than  two  or 
three  years  at  Innellan  when  steps  were  taken 
for  the  building  of  a  manse,  and  for  the  erection 
of  the  charge  into  a  parish.  This  necessitated 
the  raising  of  a  capital  sum  by  the  congregation 


MATHESON  OF  INNELLAN       113 

and  their  friends  of  something  like  three  thousand 
pounds ;  and  it  says  much  for  their  enthusiasm 
and  energy  that  by  the  end  of  1873  the  twofold 
object  was  accomplished.  A  few  years  after- 
wards the  spire  of  the  church  was  completed,  a 
bell  presented,  and,  in  the  year  of  Matheson's 
translation  to  St.  Bernard's,  plans  were  prepared 
and  arrangements  completed  for  a  further  extension 
of  the  church.  All  this  reflects,  in  the  highest 
degree,  not  only  on  Matheson's  popularity,  but 
also  on  his  practical  foresight  and  power  of  lead- 
ing his  congregation.  He  had  the  faculty  of 
conducting  the  meetings  of  his  office-bearers  in 
such  a  way  as  to  secure  their  hearty  co-operation 
in  everything  that  concerned  the  good  of  the 
church.  "One  thing  I  greatly  admired  in  Dr. 
Matheson,"  writes  one  who  acted  for  some  time 
as  his  session  clerk,  "was  the  able  way  in  which 
he  conducted  the  meetings  of  office-bearers.  He 
trusted  them,  and  everyone  was  more  anxious 
than  another  to  do  all  he  could  for  him  and  the 
church."  The  following  letter,  written  to  his  old 
friend  Mr.  William  Stevenson,  who  was  his  right- 
hand  man  in  every  scheme  that  w^as  initiated  for 
the  good  of  the  church,  shows  at  once  Matheson's 
tact,  business  faculty,  and  generous  handling  both 
of  men  and  of  money  matters  : — 

Manse,  Innellan, 
October  2^  1879. 

I  yesterday  received  the  sum  of  two  pounds  sterling 

from  Mr. .     It  was  given  gratuitously  out  of  his  own 

pocket  to  liquidate  the  spire  debt.     As  I  have  promised 
8 


114       MATHESON  OF  INNELLAN 

to  give  other  two,  the  debt  is  now  reduced  to  three  pounds 
and  a  few  shillings.     I  had  a  call  yesterday  morning  from 

Mr.  .     He  insists  that  he  shall  be  informed  of  the 

date  of  our  Annual  Meeting,  and  that  to  suit  him  it  must 
be  held  during  the  day  ;  in  whatever  part  of  the  country 
he  is,  he  will  come  to  it.  He  wants  any  overplus  funds 
of  the  church  to  be  appropriated  to  certain  projects  with 
which  his  head  is  on  fire.  I  would  like  you,  when  the 
meeting  comes,  to  try  and  prevent  any  encroachment  on 
what  was   done  at  your  instigation   last  year.     Beyond 

this  I  would  be  disposed  to  humour .     I  do  not  desire 

any  more  money,  and  I  do  think  there  are  required  by 
the  church  certain  improvements  which  would  require 
all  the  spare  funds,  if  not  more.  I  merely  want  to  hint, 
meantime,  that  I  see  something  like  a  storm  signal  for 
next  meeting. 

Believe  me,  etc. 

The  phase  of  Matheson's  life  and  w^ork  at 
Innellan  that  has  nov^  been  dealt  with  may  be 
summed  up  in  the  follov^Ing  reminiscences  by  one 
who  knew  him  well,  and  who  was  closely  associated 
with  him  during  this  period  of  his  ministry  ;  I  mean 
Dr.  J.  B.  Watt  of  Ayr  :— 

During  the  College  summer  vacation  of  1867  I  had 
the  delight  and  privilege  of  becoming  associated  with  the 
Rev.  Dr.  George  Matheson  as  reader  and  amanuensis.  At 
this  time  he  had  been  left  in  charge  of  Sandyford  Church, 
during  the  absence  of  Dr.  Macduff  in  Palestine.  He  had 
been  suddenly  appointed ;  and  his  work,  it  having  been 
changed  from  that  of  a  probationer  to  that  of  a  pastor, 
for  the  time,  of  a  most  important  Glasgow  congregation, 
necessitated  very  active  study.  Reading  had  to  be  done 
in  all  fields  of  theology  and  other  allied  departments  of 
knowledge.  Sermons  had  to  be  composed  and  written 
out,  psalms  and  lessons  committed  to  memory,  besides 
the  visitation  of  all  ranks  had  to  be  undertaken ;  but  his 
master  mind  showed  itself  in  every  detail,  and  when  work 


MATHESON  OF  INNELLAN        115 

was  over  for  the  day  he  greatly  enjoyed  his  evening's 
recreation.  What  struck  one  first  was  his  amazing 
ability  to  commit  to  memory  sermons  and  lessons  after 
one  or  two  readings.  At  first  the  active  work  was  some- 
what of  an  effort,  which,  however,  he  steadily  overcame. 
It  has  been  said  that  "  without  music  man  is  but  half 
complete."  Matheson  fulfilled  this  conception  of  the 
finished  man,  and  his  singing  of  ''  John  Peel "  and  other 
songs  delighted  all  who  were  privileged  to  hear  him. 
Story-telling  was  another  of  his  great  delights,  and  no 
matter  how  often  he  told  his  tales,  his  own  enjoyment  was 
so  transparent,  and  his  hearty  laugh  so  infectious,  that 
one  always  welcomed  them  again.  The  summer  ended, 
work  at  College  had  to  be  resumed,  and  we  were  parted 
for  a  period  of  some  years.  But,  as  good  fortune  would 
have  it,  after  visits  at  rare  intervals  at  Innellan,  where  he 
had  now  gone,  I  became  settled  in  practice  there  in  1871, 
for  a  year,  and  our  friendship  was  renewed,  became 
closer,  and  our  meetings  were  as  frequent  as  our  duties 
would  allow.  Entering  fully  into  his  life  there,  I  became 
the  secretary  of  his  flourishing  church,  and  experienced 
great  pleasure  in  co-operating  with  him  in  the  schemes 
that  were  then  on  foot  for  the  building  of  the  Manse  and 
the  endowing  of  the  charge.  During  that  summer  he 
and  I  took  a  holiday  to  London  for  a  couple  of  weeks, 
doing  the  sights,  and  meeting  many  friends  of  previous 
College  days,  and  not  a  few  of  the  well-known  writers  and 
poets — G.  A.  Sala,  H.  S.  Leigh,  etc. — in  whose  company  his 
rich  personality  found  genial  expression.  At  this  time 
nothing  important  had  appeared  from  his  pen,  but  his 
preaching  was  entrancing.  His  extraordinary  flow  of 
poetic  language,  and  his  vivid  descriptions,  held  one  spell- 
bound till  the  end  of  the  service.  During  the  brief  year 
of  my  life  in  Innellan  our  intimacy  was  one  of  most  un- 
reserved confidence;  and  though  I  was  the  familiar 
repository  of,  I  believe,  his  most  secret  thoughts,  such 
was  the  transparency  and  purity  of  his  nature  that  death 
itself  could  do  little  to  enhance  the  sacredness  of  the 
affection  with  which  I  regarded  his  character,  and  now 
revere  his  memory. 


116       MATHESON  OF  INNELLAN 

Two  Important  changes  took  place  in  Matheson's 
preaching  while  he  was  at  Innellan.  They  radically 
affected  both  its  matter  and  manner,  and  had  far- 
reachine  results.  In  Dr.  Watt's  reminiscences 
there  is  a  tribute  to  Matheson's  remarkable 
memory.  Two  readings  of  a  sermon,  of  a  psalm, 
or  of  the  lesson  for  the  day,  were  sufficient  to  enable 
him  to  repeat  it  without  a  mistake.  For  the  first 
twelve  years  of  his  career  he  was  in  the  habit  of 
committing  his  sermon  to  memory.  As  this  in- 
volved little  trouble,  and  as  he  delivered  his 
discourse  with  an  ease  which  suggested  extemporary 
speaking,  neither  he  nor  anyone  else  saw  reason 
why  it  should  be  changed.  He  evidently  enjoyed 
this  method  of  preaching,  and  his  hearers  shared 
his  enjoyment  to  the  full.  But  one  Sunday  morn- 
ing an  event  happened  which  suddenly  transformed 
his  former  practice.  At  the  time  it  looked  like  a 
catastrophe,  but  it  proved  to  be  his  salvation. 
While  in  the  flow  of  his  oratory  he  abruptly 
stopped.  The  sudden  collapse  caused  a  profound 
sensation.  Not  only  was  it  absolutely  unprecedented, 
but  he  was  never  known  to  have  been  at  a  loss  for 
a  word  or  to  have  been  subject  to  the  slightest 
hesitancy.  Matheson  was  equal  to  the  occasion. 
He  quietly  announced  to  the  congregation  that,  so 
far  as  the  sermon  which  he  had  prepared  for  their 
hearing  that  morning  was  concerned,  his  mind  was 
a  perfect  blank.  He  then  gave  out  a  psalm  and 
sat  down.  After  it  had  been  sung,  he  rose,  gave 
out  a  fresh  text,  and  from  it  preached  a  sermon 


MATHESON  OF  INNELLAN        117 

with    all     his    wonted     freedom,     eloquence,    and 
vigour. 

The  surprise  ought  to  be,  that  a  collapse  of 
this  kind  had  not  happened  long  before.  It  was 
not  due  to  any  failing  of  memory,  to  lack  of  prep- 
aration, or  the  impairing  of  any  faculty  whatso- 
ever. It  was  entirely  due  to  the  steady  enrichment 
of  his  mental  and  spiritual  nature  by  years  of  con- 
stant reading  and  profound  meditation  and  study. 
His  mind  had  become  so  full,  he  was  so  armed 
with  intellectual  weapons,  fresh  thoughts  were 
bubbling  up  in  his  soul  so  irrepressibly,  that  in 
the  middle  of  his  prepared  discourse  a  happy 
suggestion  protruded  itself  which  he  felt  impelled 
to  develop.  Once  he  had  developed  this  thought 
he  had  lost  the  thread  of  his  old  one,  or,  at  all 
events,  the  words  which  ought  to  have  appeared 
for  expression  failed  to  be  forthcoming,  and  he 
only  stated  the  sober  truth  when  he  declared  that 
so  far  as  the  sermon  in  hand  was  concerned  his 
''mind  was  a  perfect  blank."  It  cost  him  no 
trouble  to  preach  another  sermon,  his  mind  was 
full  of  discourses  which  he  had  delivered  on  many 
occasions ;  but  it  shows  his  complete  mastery  over 
himself,  and  confidence  in  his  own  powers,  that  he 
so  quickly  recovered  his  self-possession,  which  in 
fact  was  never  altogether  lost,  and  felt  his  ability 
to  deliver  another  discourse  without  any  fear  of  a 
breakdown. 

This   must   have  happened  in  the  year   1878, 
for    I    find   from    that    time   onward   none   of  his 


118        MATHESON  OF  INNELLAN 

sermons  are  written  out  in  full.  Up  to  that 
period  sixteen  volumes  are  filled  with  his  discourses, 
and  each  one  is  complete,  except  that  occasionally 
the  practical  application  at  the  end  is  simply 
indicated  by  a  note.  But  from  this  time  onwards 
there  is  a  marked  curtailment  ;  the  space  in 
manuscript  is  reduced  to  a  half,  and,  in  a  very 
short  time,  to  a  tenth  part  of  what  the  sermon 
formerly  occupied.  He  now  adopted  the  method 
of  preparing  a  skeleton  only.  Each  skeleton 
seldom  occupies  more  than  a  page,  if  so  much  ; 
but  the  thoughts  are  so  pregnant,  the  subject  so 
carefully  arranged,  the  divisions  so  clear,  the 
suggested  illustrations  so  apt,  that  anyone  with  a 
power  of  extemporary  speech  and  with  a  mind  in 
sympathy  with  Matheson's  could,  after  a  few  hours' 
meditation,  deliver  from  them  a  sermon  that  might 
be  telling  In  the  extreme.  One  can  accordingly 
understand  what  a  power  these  notes  would  be  in 
the  hands  of  a  man  like  Matheson.  Anyone  who 
listened  to  his  conversation  must  have  been  im- 
pressed by  the  readiness  and  conciseness  of  his 
utterance.  He  could  put  a  thought  into  a  nut- 
shell ;  he  could  demolish  an  argument  by  a 
quotation  or  an  epigram.  His  poetic  mind  was 
kept  under  the  control  of  a  strong  will,  which 
always  compelled  the  thought  into  the  channel 
which  he  had  meant  for  it,  and  directed  the  arrow 
of  his  fancy  to  the  object  at  which  he  was  aiming. 
His  logical  faculty  was  much  more  pronounced 
than  those  who  are  accustomed   to  argument  by 


MATHESON  OF  INNELLAN        119 

syllogism  were  aware  of.  The  truths  which  he 
enforced  often  soared  on  the  wings  of  imagination, 
and  his  matter-of-fact  hearers  thought  they  were 
lost  in  the  clouds ;  but  those  who  were  able  to 
follow  him  on  such  occasions  felt  that  there  was 
reason  in  his  madness,  and  recognised  the  force 
of  his  loeic  when  the  discourse  was  done. 

For  the  subsequent,  which  fortunately  was  the 
longer,  period  of  Dr.  Mathesons  ministry,  his 
preaching  gained  in  spontaneity,  directness,  and 
power.  He  came  into  the  pulpit  after  hours  of 
meditation,  with  his  subject  clearly  held  in  his 
mind.  He  put  himself  at  once  in  touch  with  his 
audience,  and  trusting  to  his  marvellous  power  of 
extemporary  utterance,  which  had  been  trained  by 
long  years  of  patient  labour,  he  poured  out  his 
whole  soul  and  carried  his  hearers  captive.  It 
was  now  that  those  who  came  to  hear  him  dis- 
covered the  man,  as  well  as  the  preacher.  He 
stood  before  them  as  he  was,  and  gave  them  not 
only  the  best  of  his  thought  but  of  himself,  Sunday 
after  Sunday.  This  was  a  joy  to  him  as  to  them, 
and  although  for  the  moment  he  experienced  that 
ease  and  freedom  which  are  shared  by  those  who 
have  the  gift  of  extemporary  speech,  still  virtue 
went  out  of  him.  The  strain  upon  the  physical 
frame  may  have  been  too  much.  The  spiritual  and 
mental  nature  itself  only  grew  richer  and  deeper. 

Of  more  importance  perhaps  than  the  change 
in  the  manner,  was  that  which  took  place  in  the 
substance    of    his    preaching.       This  change  was 


120       MATHESON  OF  INNELLAN 

anterior  to  the  other.  It  took  place  during  the 
first  or  second  year  of  his  ministry  at  Innellan. 
It  reached  far  down,  and  shook  the  foundations 
of  his  faith.  The  result  was  a  temporary  un- 
hinging, a  threatened  collapse,  of  his  religious 
beliefs.  Nor  should  anyone  express  surprise  at 
this,  any  more  than  he  should  at  the  break- 
down in  the  manner  of  his  preaching.  Both  were 
bound  to  come.  One  cannot  conceive  a  man 
like  Matheson  passing  through  life  without  being 
called  upon  to  reconsider  his  theological  bearings. 
He  was  brought  up  on  the  traditional  beliefs  of 
his  day.  His  boyhood  and  youth  were  passed  in 
a  period  of  extreme  orthodoxy.  He  was  educated 
under  a  ministry  which  was  noted  for  its  evan- 
gelical fervour ;  and  even  Pulsford,  whom  he 
declares  to  have  set  his  soul  on  fire,  never 
disputed  the  evidences  which  were  explicitly 
accepted  in  his  day.  It  was  the  spiritual  genius 
of  Pulsford  rather  than  his  theological  speculations 
which  quickened  Matheson's  nature.  It  is  true 
that  John  Caird  had  been  gradually  groping  his 
way  in  the  direction  of  a  new  outlook  upon 
traditional  and  current  theology.  He  had  been 
bitten  by  the  speculative  methods  of  the  German 
philosophers ;  and  his  lectures,  as  Professor  of 
Divinity,  were  largely  influenced  by  their  spirit 
and  method.  But  the  remarkable  fact  is  that,  at 
the  time,  Caird's  influence  upon  Matheson  would 
seem  to  have  been  extremely  slight.  It  is  perfectly 
certain,   at  any  rate,   that  he  was  not  tempted  to 


MATHESON  OF  INNELLAN        121 

assume  that  negative  attitude  towards  the  current 
method  of  regarding  Divine  truth  which  was 
adopted  by  many  of  those  who  came  under  the 
influence  of  Caird's  teaching.  The  Professor 
himself,  it  need  hardly  be  said,  never  wavered  in 
his  allegiance  to  what  is  truly  essential  in  the 
Christian  religion.  Indeed,  he  was  the  helper  of 
those  who  had  the  power  to  follow  him  in  his 
search  after  eternal  truth  ;  and  the  inspiration  of 
his  teaching  and  character  was  deeply  felt  by 
those  who  sat  under  him.  But  a  spirit  of  negation 
began  to  possess  not  a  few  of  those  who  at  the 
time  were  affected  by  the  new  outlook  upon 
theology.  Matheson  never  fell  under  its  spell, 
nor  had  he  as  a  student  become  thoroughly  imbued 
with  the  positive  spirit  which  reconstructed  afresh 
the  forms  of  belief  after  criticism  had  done  its  work 
with  them.  He  was  evidently  content  for  the  time 
being  to  walk  in  the  old  paths,  and  to  light  them 
up  with  flashes  of  imagination  and  poetry.  He 
could  not,  however,  live  long  in  a  frail  house  of  this 
kind ;  the  crash  was  bound  to  come,  and  when  it 
did  come  his  theological  tabernacle  was  a  mass  of 
ruins. 

Ten  years  before  his  death,  referring  to  this 
experience,  which  could  never  be  forgotten  by 
him,  he  said  : 

At  one  time,  with  a  great  thrill  of  horror,  I  found 
myself  an  absolute  atheist.  After  being  ordained  at 
Innellan,  I  believed  nothing ;  neither  God  nor  im- 
mortality.    I  tendered  my  resignation  to  the  Presbytery, 


122       MATHESON  OF  INNELLAN 

but  to  their  honour  they  would  not  accept  it,  even  though 
a  Highland  Presbytery.  They  said  I  was  a  young  man, 
and  would  change.     I  have  changed. 

I  do  not  think  that  the  matter  ever  came  to  so 
acute  a  crisis  ecclesiastically.  There  is  no  evidence 
that  the  subject  came  officially  before  the  court, 
although  he  undoubtedly  was  quite  willing  that  it 
should  do  so,  and  had  taken  the  first  step  towards 
this  result.  I  possess  a  letter  from  an  honoured 
minister  of  the  Church,  who  at  the  time  was  a  co- 
Presbyter  of  Matheson's,  which  throws  some  light 
on  the  question  : 

With  regard  to  a  resignation,  certainly  nothing  of  the 
kind  ever  came  before  the  Presbytery  while  I  was  a 
member.  Your  letter,  however,  brings  to  mind  a  circum- 
stance I  had  long  forgotten.  In  a  conversation  with  the 
late  Dr.  Cameron  of  Dunoon,  a  friend  of  Dr.  Matheson's, 
and  leader  of  the  Presbytery  in  those  days,  he  mentioned 
that  Matheson  had  thought  of  giving  up  the  ministry, 
for  the  reason  you  indicate.  He  spoke  of  it,  however, 
as  a  thing  past  and  done  with.  I  never  heard  any  other 
member  of  Presbytery  refer  to  the  subject.  I  do  not 
think  they  could  have  known  anything  about  it.  I  had 
forgotten  it  altogether  until  your  letter  recalled  it.  As 
Dr.  Matheson  was  in  the  Presbytery  of  Dunoon  some 
three  years  after  I  left  it,  it  is,  of  course,  just  possible 
that  he  may  have  taken  more  decisive  steps  afterwards. 
I  do  not  think  this  is  probable,  as  I  should  have  been 
sure  to  hear  of  it  in  the  course  of  my  coming  and 
going,  and  meeting  with  his  co-Presbyters.  The  im- 
pression left  on  my  mind  by  Dr.  Cameron  was,  that  the 
matter  had  not  gone  beyond  the  stage  of  conversation, 
and,  though  grave,  was  but  a  passing  phase  of  thought. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  reconcile  Matheson's  state- 
ment with  this  letter.      He  had  never  been  in  the 


MATHESON  OF  INNELLAN        123 

habit  of  attending  meetings  of  Presbytery.  Ac- 
cordingly, when  such  a  matter  as  the  one  under 
consideration  had  to  be  dealt  with,  it  was  natural 
that  he  should  do  it  through  a  friend,  who  might 
bring  it  up  before  the  court  in  due  course.  Matheson 
was  perfectly  honest  at  the  time  in  his  resolu- 
tion, and  one  cannot  be  too  grateful  to  Dr.  Cameron 
for  counselling  him  to  pause  before  the  subject 
should  be  officially  communicated  to  the  Presbytery. 
His  friend  must  have  known  that  it  was  impossible 
for  a  spiritually-minded  man  like  Matheson  to 
remain  for  any  length  of  time  an  atheist.  The 
darkness  could  only  be  temporary  ;  new  light  was 
sure  to  dawn  upon  the  troubled  mind. 

This  new  light  came  from  the  philosophy  of 
Hegel.  Matheson's  first  introduction  to  the  system 
of  the  Qfreat  German  thinker  was  at  the  hands  of 
Dr.  Caird.  After  his  induction  to  Innellan  he  took 
up  the  study  of  theology  and  philosophy  afresh,  and 
with  ereat  thorouo^hness  and  earnestness.  The 
practical  work  of  the  ministry,  the  necessity  of  not 
only  thinking  upon  religion,  but  of  presenting  it, 
Sunday  after  Sunday,  in  a  way  satisfactory  to  his 
own  mind  and  helpful  to  his  hearers,  brought  him 
face  to  face  with  his  fundamental  beliefs,  caused 
him  to  search  for  them,  and,  if  found,  to  examine 
them.  To  his  amazement  he  discovered  the  search 
to  be  in  vain.  He  had  in  reality  no  fundamental 
beliefs  to  examine.  He  had  accepted  the  traditional 
views,  and  had  never  really  inquired  into  their 
absolute  truth  or  their  living  relation  to  his  own 


124       MATHESON  OF  INNELLAN 

soul.  Most  men  are  content  to  pass  on  through 
life  without  ever  questioning  the  doctrines  which 
they  inherit.  They  may  be  reputed  to  be  orthodox, 
and  are  among  the  first  to  cast  stones  at  those  who 
dare  to  inquire.  Matheson  could  not  possibly  be 
numbered  with  this  class.  The  day  of  his  visita- 
tion was  sure  to  come  ;  and  it  came  to  him,  as  it  did 
to  Robertson  of  Brighton,  like  a  thief  in  the  night. 
The  famous  Brighton  preacher  fled  to  the  Tyrol,  and 
in  the  solitude  of  its  mountains  and  forests  wrestled 
with  his  doubts  until  the  dawn.  Matheson's  battle 
of  the  soul  was  fought  In  the  quiet  village  of  Innellan, 
and  his  lost  faith  was  restored  throuorh  him  whose 
philosophy  makes  true  to  the  spirit  what  criticism 
or  unbelief  may  have  rendered  false  to  the  mind. 

''  They,"  observed  Matheson,  referring  to  the 
Presbytery  of  Dunoon, 

said  I  was  a  young  man,  and  would  change.  I  have 
changed.  Without  hypocrisy  I  preach  all  the  old  doctrines 
and  use  all  the  old  forms,  but  with  deeper  meaning. 
My  theological  sympathies  are  in  favour  of  breadth, 
but  not  negation.  It  is  a  great  mistake  to  suppose 
that  there  is  any  advantage,  or  disadvantage,  in  being 
broad  or  narrow,  long  or  short,  high  or  low.  The  ques- 
tion is :  What  is  it  that  is  broad  ?  Is  it  broadcloth  or 
broad  shoulders?  Therefore  I  do  not  value  an  opinion 
simply  because  it  is  a  negative  opinion,  and  different  from 
use  and  wont.  I  am  as  broad  as  can  be,  but  it  is  a  broad 
positive. 

In  this  he  spoke  the  truth.  These  few  sentences 
give  the  key  to  his  theological  position — a  position 
which  he  gained  as  a  young  man  at  Innellan,  and 
which  he  never  lost.     He  may  In  after  years  have 


MATHESON  OF  INNELLAN        125 

deepened  spiritually,  but  intellectually  he  stood  fast 
to  his  profound  belief  in  Christianity,  in  the  ideas 
which  it  embodies.  These  he  was  convinced  were 
from  all  time,  and  for  all  time.  The  '*  Lamb  slain 
from  the  foundation  of  the  world,"  the  sacrificial 
element  in  Christianity  was,  he  believed,  the  thought 
which  God  had  from  the  beginning  in  His  mind ;  and 
upon  it  the  plan  of  the  whole  universe,  the  course 
of  history,  and  the  life  of  the  individual  were  based. 
Christ,  in  the  flesh,  was  the  revealer  and  inter- 
preter of  all  this.  It  was  in  the  philosophy  of 
Hegel  that  he  found  the  key  to  the  mystery ;  and 
he  rejoiced  with  joy  unspeakable  when  what  was 
dark  was  illumined,  and  when  his  lost  faith  was 
restored  in  a  new  and  living  form.  In  a  letter 
written  at  a  much  later  date  to  his  friend  Dr. 
Gloag,  he,  in  speaking  of  Lichtenberger's  History 
of  German  Theology  in  the  Nineteenth  Century, 
which  had  just  been  translated  by  the  late 
Professor  Hastie,  refers  to  this  point : 

I  am  glad  you  like  Lichtenberger.  I  bought  the  book 
some  time  ago  and  I  am  already  half  through.  It  is  truly 
delightful  reading,  full  of  information  and  replete  with 
epigrammatic  beauty.  There  is  a  chapter  on  Schiller  and 
Goethe  which  reads  like  a  novel.  I  think  the  author's 
own  mind  is  rather  French  than  German — more  brilliant 
than  profound.  He  has  no  adequate  appreciation  of  the 
Hegelian  school,  nor  do  I  think  him  altogether  just  to 
what  he  calls  the  reactionary  party — the  men  of  high  and 
dry  orthodoxy.  But  with  these  reservations  the  book  is 
admirable,  and  you  will  thoroughly  enjoy  it.  Regarding 
my  own  views  and  projects  I  shall  at  present  say  nothing. 
It  is  a  subject  on  which  I  always  like  best  to  express  my- 
self verbally.     I  may  say  generally,  however,  that  the  man 


126        MATHESON  OF  INNELLAN 

of  all  others  who  expresses  most  my  personal  belief  is 
Pfleiderer.  I  am  every  year  more  persuaded  that  the  ideal 
is  the  reality,  and  that  the  study  of  Church  History  ought 
to  be  a  study  of  the  genesis  and  development  of  the 
Christian  ideal.  I  believe  that  the  ideal  of  the  Christian 
life  is  itself  the  supernatural  creation  in  the  heart  of  man, 
and  that  it  must  have  existed  before  the  historical  Christ. 
Because  without  its  previous  presence  the  beauty  of  the 
Christ  of  History  would  have  been  unintelligible.  I 
cannot  go  further  here. 

Keeping  this  expression  of  his  position  In  mind, 
one  is  able  to  read  v^Ith  intelligence  the  long  series 
of  books  and  articles  v\^hlch  he  began  to  write  a 
fev^  years  after  his  Induction  at  Innellan ;  and 
should  his  sermons  ever  be  published,  their  in- 
ward significance  will  be  made  plain  In  the  light 
of  It.  His  writings  cover  a  large  field  ;  they  deal 
with  a  great  variety  of  subjects  ;  they  may  be  said 
to  differ  in  type,  but  through  them  all  can  be  traced 
his  conception  of  the  truth  which  this  letter  more 
than  Indicates,  and  his  attitude  towards  the  world  of 
thought  and  life  as  a  whole,  which  he  meant  by 
classing  himself  under  the  category  of  the  *'  broad 
positive."  The  spirit  of  Christianity,  the  Ideal 
which  It  embodies,  and  the  central  Figure  in 
whom  It  was  realised,  became  part  and  parcel  of 
Matheson's  nature.  He  had  during  that  struggle 
at  Innellan  not  only  reconcelved  but  relived  his 
faith.  Two  extracts  from  his  sermons  may  here  be 
given.  They  will  at  once  Illustrate  the  advance 
made  by  him  since  his  probationer  days,  and  the 
way  In  which  he  expounded  and  enforced  his  re- 
constructed   faith.      Preaching    at    Innellan   in   the 


MATHESON  OF  INNELLAN        127 

year    1878,   on  the   subject   of   ''building   on    the 
foundation"  (i  Cor.  iii.  12-14),  he  remarks: 

We  hear  familiarly  in  the  present  day  of  the  broad  and 
the  narrow  Church.  The  distinction  is  a  real  one,  but  it  is 
not  always  what  is  implied.  Every  church  is  narrow  which 
has  not  Christ  for  its  foundation,  every  church  is  broad 
which  is  built  upon  the  Son  of  Man.  Every  form  of 
belief,  and  every  form  of  unbelief,  which  is  outside  the 
kingdom  of  Christ,  exerts  a  narrowing  tendency  over  the 
human  soul,  for  it  tells  me  that  I  alone  am  right,  and  that 
everyone  else  is  wrong.  But  let  a  man  once  get  his  feet 
on  the  foundation,  let  him  once  stand  on  the  all-transcend- 
ing truth  of  the  Gospel,  he  will  find  it  to  be  an  all-com- 
prehending truth  too.  It  will  throw  light  upon  everything  ; 
it  will  cast  a  mantle  of  charity  over  all ;  it  will  cover  a 
multitude  of  sins  ;  it  will  make  us  see  good  in  much  that 
seemed  hopeless  evil.  It  will  reveal  stars  in  many  a  night 
that  appeared  without  a  ray.  If  you  have  reached  the 
foundation,  you  have  come  to  that  charity  which  believeth 
all  things,  and  hopeth  all  things,  and  endureth  all  things ; 
for  you  have  entered  into  union  with  the  source  of  Infinite 
Love,  and  you  have  looked  upon  the  world  with  His  light. 
Thine  is  the  boundless  compassion,  and  the  world-wide 
sympathy,  and  the  endless  hope.  Thine  the  gentleness 
that  breaks  not  the  bruised  reed  nor  quenches  the  smoking 
flax.  Thine  the  redemptive  yearning  to  seek  and  to  save 
that  which  is  lost.  You  will  go  forth  into  the  desert  and 
gather  flowers  from  its  barren  waste  ;  you  will  walk  among 
the  tares  and  pluck  from  the  midst  of  them  the  seeds  of 
future  promise.  When  you  have  rested  on  the  great 
foundation, "  the  wood  and  the  hay  and  the  stubble  "  shall 
alike  be  included  in  your  love  with  "  the  silver  and  the 
gold  and  the  precious  stones." 

If  this  quotation  illustrates  the  ground  on  which 
he  reared  his  faith  as  "broad  positive,"  the  follow- 
ing will  reveal  the  way  in  which  he  expounded  his 
belief  that  the  ideal  of  the  Christian  life  must  have 


128        MATHESON  OF  INNELLAN 

existed  before  the  historical  Christ,  and  that  it  is  in 
the  Hght  of  it  all  things  are  made  plain.  By  the 
time  he  preached  this  sermon  on  the  "  Lamb  slain 
from  the  foundation  of  the  world  "  (Rev.  xiii.  8),  he 
had  ceased  to  write  out  his  discourses  in  full,  but 
the  skeleton,  although  much  briefer  than  usual,  is 
sufficiently  explicit : 

Idea  is,  Christ's  death  not  an  accident  but  part  of  a 
system.  It  also  indicates  that  the  system  is  one  of  love. 
Calvary  older  than  Eden,  and  the  plan  for  redemption 
precedes  the  fact  of  creation.  Divine,  like  human  father- 
hood, provides  for  the  contingency  of  its  children.  As 
proof  of  this  adduce  the  sacrificial  harmony  between  the 
volumes  of  nature  and  grace.  "  The  foundation  of  the 
world,"  that  is,  the  work  of  God  in  creation,  prefigures 
sacrifice.  All  things  shine  by  passing  into  the  life  of 
others :  the  seed  into  the  flower,  the  sun  into  nature,  the 
sea  into  the  reflection  of  the  light.  Each  stage  of  human 
life  expands  by  sacrifice  of  self-will.  Show  this  in  the 
child,  the  boy,  the  youth,  etc.  Exhibit  then  how  Christ 
was  "slain  from  the  foundation  of  the  world."  Connect 
the  text  with  the  words,  "  Lo,  I  come,  I  delight  to  do  Thy 
will."  When  the  will  is  surrendered  the  work  is  practic- 
ally done. 

There  was  thus  to  Matheson  not  only  a  Divine 
purpose  in  the  universe  and  in  human  life,  but  a 
purpose  that  was  intelligible  to  the  mind  and  ap- 
pealed to  the  heart.  In  the  light  of  it,  all  things 
became  new.  The  dark  problems  of  existence,  the 
calamities  of  life,  the  vicissitudes  and  trials,  the 
sufferings  and  sorrows  of  mortal  existence,  yea, 
even  death  itself,  yielded  up  their  mystery  to  the 
Christian  ideal.  As  seen  through  it,  every  effort 
of  the  human  mind  and  spirit,  and  the  searchings 


MATHESON  OF  INNELLAN        129 

and  strivings  of  natural  religion,  were  seen  to  be 
but  developments  and  stages  in  the  realisation  of 
the  world  plan.  The  rise  and  fall  of  nations — in 
fact,  the  course  of  civilisation  as  a  whole — but 
illustrated  the  truth  which  had  now  been  revealed 
to  him.  The  Christian  religion  itself,  in  one  sense 
the  goal,  was  in  another  the  beginning.  It  revealed 
in  full  measure  what  had  always  been  in  the  mind  of 
the  Eternal.  Its  broken  creeds  contained  fractions 
of  the  truth,  and  in  place  of  being  anathema  one 
to  another  they  ought  to  regard  each  other  with 
that  charity  which  believeth  all  things.  It  was 
thus  that  Matheson  could  gather  them  all  together. 
His  intellectual  and  moral  sympathy  embraced 
each  Church,  and  extended  the  hand  to  every 
form  of  Christian  faith  ;  indeed,  it  could  reach  out 
to  those  religions  that  are  regarded  as  natural,  for 
he  saw  in  them  foreshadowings  of  those  truths 
which  were  revealed  when  the  times  were  ripe. 
He  thus  became  the  great  reconciler  of  his  age, 
and  did  for  his  own  generation  what  Robertson 
of  Brighton  accomplished  for  his.  Matheson's 
writings,  which  we  are  to  study  in  the  following 
chapter,  will  illustrate  this  more  fully. 


CHAPTER  VI 

AUTHORSHIP 

For  a  studious  man  like  Matheson  no  better  place 
could  have  been  found  than  Innellan.  The  con- 
gregational and  parochial  demands  on  his  time 
were  slight  in  the  extreme.  The  membership  of 
his  church  was  never  very  large  ;  there  was  little 
poverty,  and  the  occasions  on  which  he  had  to 
officiate  at  funerals  and  marriages  were  few  and 
far  between.  For  eight  or  nine  months  in  the 
year  his  duties  consisted  mainly  in  the  preparation 
and  delivery  of  the  weekly  sermon ;  the  remainder 
of  his  time  was  practically  at  his  own  disposal, 
and  it  must  be  admitted  that  he  made  the  fullest 
and  the  best  use  of  it.  There  was  nothing  that 
he  enjoyed  more  than  being  read  to,  and  he 
had,  within  easy  distance,  in  Glasgow,  the  com- 
mand of  a  number  of  libraries,  particularly  the 
University  Library,  and  I  know  from  the  register 
of  readers  at  the  time  that  he  perused  many  of 
the  volumes  on  philosophy,  theology,  and  cognate 
subjects,  that  it  contains.  His  secretary  was  con- 
tinually coming   and   going,    exchanging  a  packet 

130 


AUTHORSHIP  131 

of  books  for  a  fresh  supply,  and  generally  catering 
for  the  mental  appetite  of  his  chief. 

It  goes  without  saying  that  most  of  what  was 
read  was  retained.  Matheson's  remarkable  memory 
enabled  him  to  keep  a  firm  hold  of  almost  every 
idea  and  fact  that  were  once  communicated  to  him. 
But  he  did  not  become  a  mere  bookworm  ;  he  had 
an  extraordinary  power  of  assimilation.  Whatever 
appealed  to  his  intellectual  sympathy  was  appro- 
priated and,  with  any  modification  necessary,  be- 
came part  of  his  own  original  views.  In  addition, 
there  was  a  method  in  his  reading ;  he  was  by 
nature  and  training  a  speculative  theologian.  The 
poet  in  him  contributed  to  the  fulfilment  of  his 
main  purpose,  which  was  to  produce  in  speech  or 
by  writing  a  fresh  and  stimulating  view  of  Divine 
truth.  From  his  earliest  years  he  aimed  at  author- 
ship. As  a  schoolboy  his  efforts  were  printed  at 
the  express  desire  of  his  class-fellows,  and  as  a 
student  one  poem  at  least  found  its  way  to  the 
press. 

Nor  was  he  long  at  Innellan  until  he  con- 
templated publication.  The  work,  however,  which 
he  intended  for  the  world  was  not  the  one  that  first 
appeared  ;  indeed,  it  never  appeared  in  the  form  in 
which  he  wrote  it.  There  are  among  his  literary 
remains  a  series  of  articles,  or  chapters,  which  were 
no  doubt  intended  for  a  volume.  Including  the 
introduction  and  conclusion  they  number  fourteen, 
and  would  have  made  a  very  presentable  book. 
They  bear   the   general   title   of   *'  Conquerors   by 


132  AUTHORSHIP 

Faith ;  or  the  Gospel  of  the  Old  Testament," 
and  he  evidently  intended  to  publish  them  with  his 
own  name,  for  on  the  title-page  there  is  written,  ''  By 
the  Rev.  George  Matheson,  M.A.,  B.D.,  Innellan." 
They  deal  with  those  Hebrew  characters  of  whom 
a  list  is  given  in  the  eleventh  chapter  of  the 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  beginning  with  Abel  and 
ending  with  David.  They  bear  signs  of  having 
been  submitted  to  some  friendly  criticism,  and  if 
one  can  judge  by  the  pencilled  notes,  the  critic 
was  none  other  than  Dr.  Macduff.  Why  they 
were  never  published  I  do  not  know.  They 
would  have  been  quite  worthy  of  any  young 
minister  of  the  Church.  But  on  the  whole  he  was 
wisely  guided,  for  he  would  have  forestalled  the 
publication,  many  years  afterwards,  of  his  remark- 
able volume  on  TAe  Representative  Men  of  the 
Bible.  The  subjects  are  mainly  the  same,  the 
point  of  view  not  radically  different.  But  one 
misses  in  the  earlier  series  the  touch  of  the  master 
hand,  and  that  knowledge  of  life  and  of  character 
which  can  only  come  after  much  thought  and  with 
the  years  that  bring  the  philosophic  mind.  It  is 
rather  striking  that  his  first  conceptions  were  those 
that  were  last  worked  out.  His  earliest  volume 
may  be  said  to  have  seen  the  light  only  after 
his  death,  for  The  Women  of  the  Bible,  just 
published,  was  but  the  completion  of  the  idea  that 
he  formed  at  Innellan  of  issuing  in  book-form 
sketches  of  the  characters  of  the  Old  and  the  New 
Testaments.     He  never  left  his  first  love,  and  there 


AUTHORSHIP  133 

is  not  a  little  satisfaction  in  the  reflection  that  he 
was  able  to  fulfil  the  dream  of  his  youth  before  he 
died. 

The  work  which  he  did  prepare  and  publish 
within  six  years  of  his  settlement  at  Innellan  was 
Aids  to  the  Study  of  German  Theology,  It 
appeared  in  the  autumn  of  1874,  anonymously. 
It  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  it  came  to  the 
English  public  of  the  day  as  a  glad  and  wel- 
come surprise.  There  was  in  the  mind  of  Britain 
at  the  time  a  strong  and  unreasoning  prejudice 
against  German  theology.  This,  of  course,  was 
entirely  owing  to  ignorance,  or  misrepresentation, 
of  the  subject.  Most  of  what  had  been  pub- 
lished in  England  during  the  first  half  of  the 
nineteenth  century  on  the  speculative  theories  of 
our  Teutonic  neighbours  was  certainly  not  to  their 
advantage.  Our  insular  conceit  made  us  impatient 
of  anything  that  necessitated  a  reconsideration 
or  recasting  of  our  theological  position,  and  the 
earlier  writers  on  the  subject,  partly  ignorant  of 
the  language,  and  certainly  quite  out  of  sympathy 
with  the  views  which  they  tried  to  combat,  pre- 
sented German  theology  in  a  most  unfavourable 
light. 

All  this  necessarily  created  a  reaction,  and  such 
writers  as  Pusey,  Sir  William  Hamilton,  Morell, 
and  Schaff,  in  independent  works,  and  the  scholars 
who  were  employed  to  translate  the  German  works 
that  composed  Clark's  "Biblical  Cabinet  "and  the 
"Foreign  Theological  Library,"  did  yeoman  service 


134  AUTHORSHIP 

in  breaking  down  this  prejudice  by  well-informed 
criticism  of  what  the  misjudged  authors  had  really 
said.  By  the  time  Matheson  wrote,  the  works 
of  De  Wette,  Tholuck,  Neander,  Rosenmiiller, 
Lisco,  and  Rohr,  of  Hengstenberg,  Keil,  Delitzsch, 
Bleek,  Julius  Miiller,  Giesler,  and  Dorner  had 
been  translated  ;  and  through  the  "  Theological 
Translation  Fund  Library  "  a  beginning  had  been 
made  with  a  reproduction,  in  English  dress, 
of  the  works  of  Baur,  Ewald,  Keim,  and  Haus- 
rath. 

Matheson  made  himself  familiar  with  all  the 
material  in  the  English  language  that  he  could  lay 
his  hands  on,  and  devoted  himself  to  a  keen  and 
profound  study  of  German  theology.  I  have  in 
my  hands,  as  I  write,  a  large  notebook,  which  he 
used  at  the  time,  and  it  Is  full  of  extracts  from, 
and  reflections  on,  the  works  of  Dorner,  Miiller, 
Neander,  Baur,  Morell,  Hutchison  Stirling,  etc. 
From  these  and  other  sources,  partly  original  and 
partly  translated,  he  gathered  together  and  sys- 
tematised  the  views  of  the  great  German  writers  on 
theology — from  the  time  of  Kant  downwards.  One 
cannot  study  this  notebook,  which  bears  indisput- 
able traces  of  wide  and  careful  reading,  without 
seelnor  in  it  the  o-erm  of  all  the  works  that 
Matheson  produced  at  Innellan.  It  bears  traces  of 
his  mental  struggle  at  the  time,  gives  a  history  to 
the  sympathetic  reader  of  his  spiritual  combat  with 
the  Giant  Despair,  and  shows  how  the  creative, 
positive,  and  illuminating  ideas  of  the  great  German 


AUTHORSHIP  135 

thinkers  enabled  him  to  lay  hold  afresh  of  his  lost 
faith,  and  to  body  it  forth  in  a  new  and  living  form. 
It  is  also  evident  that  he  had  during  these  years, 
while  patiently  engaged  in  mastering  the  specula- 
tive theories  of  the  new  age,  a  steadfast  purpose 
in  view.  The  great  names  of  Kant,  Schleier- 
macher,  Hegel,  Schelling,  Fichte,  and  Strauss, 
recur  most  frequently,  and  their  views  on  the 
different  problems  in  theology  with  which  they 
deal  are  elaborated  more  or  less  in  detail.  It 
was  durinof  this  time  that  Matheson  rained  a 
sure  foothold,  and  became  master  of  himself  and 
the  great  themes  with  which  he  was  afterwards  to 
deal. 

There  were  three  features  of  the  new  publica- 
tion which  commended  it  to  the  religious  public. 
These  were  its  lucidity  of  style,  its  logical  con- 
tinuity, and  its  constructive  aim.  Students  of  Ger- 
man theology  had  previously  been  debarred  from 
a  sympathetic  apprehension  of  the  subject  by  the 
linguistic  jargon  both  of  the  writers  and  their 
translators.  Even  eager  aspirants  were  repelled. 
Over  the  portals  of  this  temple,  as  over  those  of 
the  kingdom  of  heaven,  were  written  the  words  : 
"  Strait  is  the  gate  and  narrow  is  the  way,  and 
few  there  be  that  find  it."  Matheson  opened  the 
barred  door.  He  removed  the  inscription,  and  led 
into  the  new  kingdom  thousands  who  hitherto  had 
stood  patient  but  disheartened  at  the  outer  gate. 
The  fact  is  he  had  made  the  subject  his  own.  The 
iron  had  entered  his  soul,  and  he  spoke  because  he 


136  AUTHORSHIP 

felt  and  saw.  He  was  impatient  of  vagueness,  and 
he  could  never  speak  or  write  without  having  first 
of  all  formed  a  clear  conception  of  the  subject  in 
his  own  mind.  Accordingly  in  his  book  there  is  a 
beginning,  a  middle,  and  an  end.  System  follows 
system,  philosopher  succeeds  philosopher,  by  what 
seems  a  necessary  law  of  development ;  and  German 
theology,  which  before  was  to  many  English 
readers  an  inversion  or  contradiction  of  the  laws 
of  thought,  is  seen  in  Matheson's  hands  to  be 
but  the  necessary  historical  evolution  of  ideas. 
The  style,  too,  was  found  to  be  charming ;  clear, 
light,  limpid,  carrying  the  mind  along  by  its  own 
sweet  music,  and  satisfying  the  most  exact  literary 
taste. 

The  greatest  service,  however,  which  Matheson 
rendered  was  his  emphatic  and  convincing  pre- 
sentation of  German  theology  as  a  positive  and 
constructive  power,  which  in  place  of  destroying 
belief  in  Christianity  confirmed  that  belief  to  all 
doubting  and  thinking  minds.  This  is  the  first 
note  sounded  by  him.  In  his  Introduction  he  deals 
with  the  subject  of  German  Rationalism,  and  shows 
how  it  was  an  exotic  plant.  The  German  heart  he 
declares  to  be  believing,  the  German  mind  to  be 
constructive  ;  and  the  late  Professor  Hastie,  in  his 
excellent  Introduction  to  Lichtenberger's  History 
of  German  Theology  in  the  Nineteenth  Ce7itu7y, 
while  expressing  admiration  for  Matheson's  book 
as  a  whole,  commends  it  in  particular  for  the  signal 
service  which  it  rendered  at  the  time  to  the  true 


AUTHORSHIP  137 

conception    of    German    theology   as    a    creative 
science. 

The  immediate  cause  of  this  work's  inception 
was  a  conversation  between  him  and  his  friend  Dr. 
David  Sime.  The  doctor,  like  others  who  were 
in  the  habit  of  hearing  Matheson  preach,  felt  that 
it  was  a  pity  that  so  much  wealth  of  thought  and 
beauty  of  style  should  be  confined  to  the  limited 
circle  of  his  congregation  at  Innellan,  and  Sime 
one  evening  besought  him  to  gather  a  choice  few 
of  the  expositions  of  Scripture  passages  which  he 
was  in  the  habit  of  giving,  and  to  publish  them  ;  or, 
failing  this,  to  write  out  his  own  lucid  account  of 
the  German  Philosophies  and  Theologies  ;  or,  still 
better,  to  do  both.  "  No  man,"  urged  Sime, 
"should  keep  to  himself,  or  for  his  own  set,  his 
celestial,  any  more  than  his  terrestrial  work.  It 
assuredly  would  not  do  for  a  heavenly  flower  to 
waste  its  perfume  on  the  desert  air."  ''Of  course 
not,"  said  Matheson,  "but  no  good  or  beautiful 
thing  is  wasted.  However,  I  shall  think  still  more 
on  what  you  suggest ;  I  think  that  I  will  write,  and 
that  I  have  something  to  say."  The  immediate  spur 
to  his  resolution  came  a  short  time  afterwards,  when 
Mr.  James  Sime,  the  well-known  man  of  letters, 
happened  to  be  on  a  visit  to  his  brother.  He 
was  at  that  time  enoraored  in  gratherincr  materials 
for  his  Life  of  Lessing,  and  the  doctor  having 
invited  Matheson  to  meet  him,  the  trio  so  stimul- 
ated each  other's  minds  that,  in  a  short  time, 
all  of  them  became  authors.     "  Some  time,  prob- 


138  AUTHORSHIP 

ably  months  after  this  evening,"  remarks  the 
doctor, 

in  one  of  my  now  regular,  and  expected,  visits  to  the  Manse, 
I  found  my  friend  rapidly  pacing  backwards  and  forwards 
through  the  library,  and  with  unusual  strength  and  deter- 
mination in  his  usually  mirthful  and  cheerful  face.  He 
received  me  with  new  enthusiasm,  and  if  possible  with 
more  affection  than  ever.  "  I  have  made  up  my  mind," 
he  said  ;  "  you  have  broken  my  rock-like  silence — it  should 
have  been  broken  long  ago.  I  am  going  to  write  a  small 
work  on  German  Theology,  aids  to  the  great  German 
conceptions,  and  also  to  prepare  for  the  press  some  of  the 
expository  work  to  which  you  have  so  pressingly  alluded. 
In  point  of  fact,  this  morning  I  have  finished  the  first  three 
or  four  sheets  of  a  small  work  that  I  am  to  call  Aids  to 
the  Study  of  German  Theology.  Are  you  not  glad  ?  Of 
course  you  are,  but  whist !  not  a  word  about  it." 

The  book  appeared  in  the  autumn  of  1874,  and 
so  cordial  was  its  reception  that  within  two  years 
it  was  in  its  third  edition.  The  second  edition 
appeared  with  the  author's  name  on  the  title- 
page.  The  reviews  were  most  encouraging.  The 
Scotsman,  for  example,  devoted  a  whole  column  to 
it,  and  this  for  a  small  book,  and  evidently  the 
first,  by  an  unknown  author,  was  quite  unusual,  and 
was  a  proof  of  the  impression  the  work  had  made 
on  the  reviewer's  mind.  It  was  impossible  for  the 
writer  to  preserve  his  anonymity.  In  a  short  time 
letters  poured  in  upon  him  from  leading  men  in  the 
Church,  full  of  the  heartiest  congratulations  and 
encouragement.  One  of  the  first  was  from  his  old 
friend  Dr.  Macduff;  and  among  others  who  wrote 
to  him  were  Dr.  M'Culloch,  Dr.  Hugh  Macmillan, 
Dr.  Jamieson  of  Glasgow,  Professor  Charteris,  and 


AUTHORSHIP  139 

Dr.  John  Alison.  The  most  valued  commenda- 
tion, seeing  it  was  from  a  man  who  was  particularly 
versed    in    the   subject,    was    from    Dr.    Gloag   of 

Galashiels  : 

Manse  of  Galashiels, 
December  21,  1874. 

My  dear  Sir, — I  have  been  informed  that  you  are 
the  author  of  the  work  entitled  Aids  to  the  Study  of 
German  Theology^  and  I  cannot  refrain  from  writing  to 
thank  you  for  your  excellent  work.  Its  erudition  is 
extensive,  but  it  is  especially  marvellous  when  it  is 
remembered  that  the  author  had  to  encounter  great 
obstacles  from  defectiveness  of  vision.  I  cannot  under- 
stand how  you  have  amassed  such  knowledge  of  German 
Theology.  Although  I  have  been  studying  it  for  nearly 
twenty  years,  yet  I  must  yield  the  palm  to  you.  I  do  not 
pretend  to  criticise  your  work,  which  is  in  all  respects 
admirable  ;  written  in  a  candid  spirit,  and  exhibiting  great 
judgment  in  weighing  the  different  opinions.  The  distinc- 
tion you  draw  between  the  Theology  of  Baur  and  Strauss 
was  to  me  peculiarly  interesting.  I  cannot  enter  into 
your  appreciation  of  Hegel.  To  me  his  philosophy  rests 
on  no  solid  basis,  and  is  merely  an  ingenious  theory, 
without  any  ground  of  truth ;  and  I  must  confess  that  the 
Left  Hegelians  carried  it  to  its  legitimate  conclusions.  I 
was  surprised  at  the  statement  that  Ewald  believed  in  the 
resurrection  of  Jesus  as  an  historical  fact.  I  thought  that 
I  had  met  with  a  distinct  denial  of  it  in  one  of  his  writings, 
though  I  cannot  tell  where.  Nor  did  I  know  that  Whitby 
was  an  Arian.  His  Commentary  on  John  appears  to  be 
strictly  orthodox.  I  am  also  such  a  theologian  of  the  old 
school  that  I  cannot  agree  with  those  who  deprecate  the 
reasoning  of  Paley.  To  me  it  is  as  convincing,  in  oppo- 
sition to  the  modern  forms  of  infidelity,  as  it  was  in 
opposition  to  the  Deists. 

Again  thanking  you  for  your  excellent  work,  and 
hoping  that  it  will  be  only  an  instalment  and  a  prelude  to 
still  greater  works  in  theology — Believe  me,  yours  truly, 

Baton  J.  Gloag. 


140  AUTHORSHIP 

Matheson  being  now  launched  on  the  ocean  of 
authorship,  book  after  book,  and  article  after  article, 
followed  each  other  in  quick  succession  ;  and  the 
remarkable  feature  about  them  all  is  that  none 
bear  traces  of  slipshod  or  careless  work.  The 
thought,  the  style,  and  the  finish  of  each  is  as 
perfect  as  he  could  make  them.  Nor  did  his 
writing  interfere  with  his  preaching ;  in  fact  it 
seemed  to  help  it.  With  every  Sunday  came  a 
new  sermon,  and  as  the  years  rolled  on  his 
discourses  grew  in  power.  Their  spiritual  insight, 
richness  of  thought,  and  wealth  of  illustration 
increased  with  his  deepening  experience.  Three 
years  after  the  publication  of  The  Aids  appeared 
his  second  and  his  most  ambitious  book.  The 
Growth  of  the  Spirit  of  Christianity.  It  was  in 
two  volumes,  and  attracted  considerable  attention. 
It  was  an  application  of  the  principles  of  Hegel  to 
the  Christian  Church  ;  in  short,  it  was  a  philosophy 
of  the  history  of  the  Church  from  ''the  Dawn  of 
the  Christian  Era  to  the  Reformation." 

The  book,  even  after  the  lapse  of  thirty  years, 
impresses  one  by  its  power.  It  is  full  of  brilliant 
passages,  and  bristles  with  pointed  epigrams.  It  is 
bold  without  being  arrogant,  and  faces  the  most 
difficult  facts  with  a  courage  that  is  chivalrous  in 
the  extreme.  Its  knowledge  of  the  events,  the 
movements,  and  the  characters  of  that  long  period 
is  most  striking  ;  and  flash  after  flash  of  illuminating 
light  is  poured  upon  passages  and  incidents  which 
make  the  whole  period  live.     The  author  sees  in 


AUTHORSHIP  141 

the  history  of  the  world,  preceding  the  dawn  of 
Christianity,  a  preparation  for  the  advent  of  Christ. 
The  Pagan  religions,  as  well  as  Judaism,  serve  their 
purpose  in  paving  the  way  for  Him  who  was  to  be 
the  Light  of  the  World.  Christianity  after  its  birth 
enters  on  its  infancy.  It  then  passes  through  its 
youth  to  its  schooldays,  and  is  subjected  to  the 
training,  struggles,  and  discipline  which  such  an 
experience  involves.  Only  after  it  has  gone 
through  these  necessary  stages  of  development 
does  it  reach  its  full  expansion  and  expression  in 
the  Reformation. 

Such,  in  brief  outline,  is  the  plan  and  char- 
acter of  the  book.  It  presents  Christianity  as 
a  spiritual  force,  subject  to  the  law  of  evolution, 
and  gradually  unfolding  its  inner  purpose  as  the 
ages  roll  by.  The  leading  journals,  both  in 
England  and  Scotland,  recognised  at  once  the 
importance  and  the  significance  of  the  new  work, 
and  it  won  from  The  Spectator  a  lengthened  and 
favourable  review.  The  organs  of  the  English 
Church,  especially  of  the  High  Church  party, 
pointed  out  what  they  conceived  to  be  its  defects. 
It  was  easy,  of  course,  for  anyone  to  question 
the  relation  of  all  the  facts  to  the  theory  by  which 
the  author  strove  to  interpret  them.  In  the 
opinion  of  not  a  few  the  facts  were  distorted  to 
suit  the  theory.  No  one  will  be  eager  to  dispute 
the  fairness  of  this  criticism  ;  it  is  one  that  is  con- 
stantly levelled  against  Hegel  himself  But  it  is 
better   surely   to   see   facts  in  the   light   of  some 


142  AUTHORSHIP 

illuminating  principle  than  to  regard  them  as  so 
many  unintelligible  obstacles  in  the  path  of  a  true 
appreciation  of  the  course  of  history.  The  main 
objection  to  the  book,  however,  on  the  part  of  such 
critics,  was  that  it  was  a  vindication  of  Protestant- 
ism, a  glorification  of  the  individual  at  the  expense 
of  the  Church.  Matheson  would  regard  such 
criticism  as  a  compliment,  for  he  held 

that  individualism  was  the  reforming  centre  of  even 
collectivism  ;  the  reformation  of  the  latter  being  from  the 
unit  to  the  multitude,  not  from  the  multitude  to  the  unit, 
from  within  outwards  rather  than  from  without  inwards. 
No  Act  of  Parliament  would  make  a  drunkard  a  sober 
man,  or  a  grasping  money-lender  or  sensualist  into  a  large- 
souled  being.  How  often  was  the  solitary  individual 
the  starting-point  of  originality,  and  the  glowing  centre 
of  a  life  and  light  that  raise  all  life,  possibly  for  genera- 
tions. The  eternal  importance  of  the  individual  fascinated 
him.  To  lose  one's  life  in  order  to  find  it  was  emphatic- 
ally true  of  one's  own  work  and  pre-eminently  true  of  the 
works  of  great  genius. 

Notwithstanding  the  ability,  learning,  and  fascina- 
tion of  this  book,  it  never  passed  beyond  a  first 
edition.  It  is  difficult  to  account  for  this.  With 
all  its  defects  it  was  a  powerful  and  important 
contribution  to  the  subject  treated.  Its  weakness 
perhaps  consisted  in  its  aim,  for  while  it  may  be 
possible  to  apply  the  Hegelian  principle  to  the 
outstanding  periods  in  the  history  of  the  world  or 
of  the  Church,  it  is  difficult,  to  say  the  least,  to  see 
this  principle  verified  in  every  movement,  incident, 
and  detail,  in  the  growth  of  the  Christian  religion, 
during  the  first  sixteen  centuries  of  its  existence. 


AUTHORSHIP  143 

Matheson  on  more  than  one  occasion  expressed  a 
desire  to  rewrite  the  work.  He  evidently  believed 
in  the  purpose  which  he  had  in  mind  when  com- 
posing it.  No  subject  attracted  him  more  than  the 
history  of  thought,  nor  was  there  any  other  theme 
on  which  his  insight  and  suggestiveness  could  find 
a  better  field  for  their  employment. 

It  was  now  that  Matheson  began  his  numerous 
contributions  to  the  religious  and  theological 
magazines  of  the  day.  He  had  previous  to  this 
endeavoured  to  find  entrance  to  several  of  them, 
but  without  success.  Article  after  article,  he  used 
to  say,  was  rejected  by  the  ''able  editors";  but 
once  he  had  made  a  name  for  himself,  his  con- 
tributions were  solicited  by  these  same  editors,  who 
were  glad  to  receive  and  publish  the  very  articles 
which  they  had  previously  declined.  So  much  for 
editorial  insight  and  judgment.  The  very  first 
article  that  appeared  from  his  pen  was  perhaps  the 
best  he  ever  wrote.  It  was  on  the  "  Originality 
of  the  Character  of  Christ,"  and  was  published  in 
The  Contemporary  Review  of  November  1878. 

I  have  a  distinct  recollection  of  an  interesting 
incident  in  connection  with  this  article.  Sparsely 
populated  as  Innellan  was,  it  was  never,  in 
Matheson's  time  at  least,  without  one  or  two  men 
of  intellectual  ability.  They  naturally  gravitated 
to  the  Manse,  and  received  fresh  stimulus  from  the 
young  minister  who  was  so  mentally  alive.  With 
them  he  used  to  discuss  current  theoloofical  and 
philosophical  topics,  and  they  took  a  deep  personal 


144  AUTHORSHIP 

interest  in  his  literary  aspirations  and  ventures. 
Even  at  that  early  date  he  was  beginning  to  gather 
round  him  a  sympathetic  band  whose  minds  he 
imbued  with  his  own  spirit.  One  late  September, 
or  early  October,  morning  in  the  year  1878,  I 
chanced  to  be  standing  on  Innellan  pier,  waiting 
the  arrival  of  some  steamer,  when  my  eye  rested 
on  an  animated  group,  centred  round  a  close  friend 
of  Matheson's,  who  was  holding  in  his  hand  a  sheaf 
of  printed  slips,  which  at  the  time  seemed  very 
unfamiliar  to  me,  but  which  afterwards  became  only 
too  well  known  as  printers'  proof  sheets.  This 
young  Mathesonian  was  holding  forth  at  consider- 
able length  in  an  animated,  and  almost  excited, 
manner  to  the  group  that  had  gathered  round  him, 
and  on  drawing  near  I  discovered  that  what  he 
held  in  his  hand  were  the  proofs  of  the  article  by 
Matheson  that  was  to  appear  the  following  month 
in  The  Contemporary  Review.  What  strikes  one  in 
reflecting  upon  this  incident  is  the  deep  interest 
which  these  villagers  took  in  the  growing  reputa- 
tion of  their  minister.  They  were  beginning  to  be 
extremely  proud  of  him,  and  though  only  a  few  could 
have  understood  the  importance,  to  a  young  author, 
of  having  an  article  'accepted  by  so  influential  a 
magazine,  they  caught  the  spirit  of  the  occasion 
and  responded  with  hearty  sympathy  to  the  out- 
pourings of  Matheson's  friend,  who  was  expounding 
to  them  the  great  honour  that  had  befallen  their 
minister.  On  reading  anew  the  article,  which  has 
now  been  in  print  for  well-nigh  thirty  years,   one 


AUTHORSHIP  145 

feels  that  whatever  honour  may  have  accrued  to  the 
author,  an  equal  honour  at  least  befell  the  magazine 
which  was  fortunate  enough  to  secure  it.  So  deep 
an  impression  did  it  make  that,  shortly  after  its 
appearance,  it  was  translated  into  French. 

In  the  following  year  he  formed  a  connection 
with  The  Expositor  that  was  to  last  till  his  death. 
It  was  the  magazine  to  which  he  contributed  the 
greatest    number    of    articles.     Between   him   and 
its  editor  there  was  the  closest  intellectual  sympathy. 
Samuel  Cox,  who  at  that  time  had  charge  of  the 
magazine,    was  a   prince  of   expositors — scholarly, 
broad-minded,    original,    and    suggestive ;    and    he 
gathered  round  him  a  band  of  writers  who  made 
the  journal  favourably  known,  not  only  in  Britain 
but  in  America  and  the  Colonies.     It  was  only  in 
its  fifth  year  when  Dr.  Matheson  joined  it,  and  he 
continued  his  connection  under  the  present  editor, 
Dr.   Robertson  Nicoll.     Even  after  he  had,  for  the 
most  part,  ceased  to  contribute  to  current  literature, 
he    could    not   withstand   the   attractions   of    The 
Expositor,  and  some  of  his  latest  writings  appeared 
in  its  pages.     The  article  by  which  he  introduced 
himself  to  its  readers  was   on    '*  Science   and   the 
Christian   Idea  of  Prayer,"  and  in  its  own  line  it 
was  quite  equal  to  the  one  that  had  appeared,  two 
months  previously,  in   The   Contemporary  Review. 
Indeed    Matheson  never    surpassed,   in  any  of  his 
subsequent   writings,    whether    in    magazine    or    in 
book-form,    these    early    contributions.        Nothing 
finer  of  their  kind  had  appeared  from  the  pen  of  a 

lO 


146  AUTHORSHIP 

Scottish  minister.  Their  originality,  convincing 
argument,  scholarship,  easy  mastery  of  philosophic 
and  scientific  thought ;  their  suggestiveness,  high 
spiritual  tone,  and  literary  finish,  mark  them  out  as 
among  the  best  specimens  of  magazine  writing  that 
the  age  produced. 

This  was  the  year  in  which  the  first  distinctive 
honour  was  bestowed  on  Matheson.  At  the  spring 
graduation  of  1879,  the  University  of  Edinburgh 
conferred  upon  him  the  degree  of  Doctor  of 
Divinity.  It  might  be  thought  that  his  own 
University  should  have  been  the  first  to  recognise 
him,  but  he  was  still  young ;  he  was  just  in  his 
thirty-seventh  year,  and  he  had  been  a  parish 
minister  for  eleven  years  only.  Think,  however, 
of  his  record !  He  was  one  of  the  most  dis- 
tinguished students  of  his  time,  as  a  preacher  he 
was  already  in  the  first  rank,  and  as  an  author  he 
had  proved  his  quality.  In  addition  to  all  this,  there 
was  the  sad  fact  that  he  was  blind.  No  one  of  his 
standing  among  his  contemporaries,  and  with  all 
their  faculties  unimpaired,  had  in  the  field  of  oratory 
or  of  authorship  attained  to  anything  like  his  dis- 
tinction ;  and  yet  in  spite  of  a  calamity  terrible  for 
most  men  to  contemplate,  let  alone  to  endure,  he 
had  achieved  a  reputation  which  was  fast  spreading 
over  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land.  As  for 
Matheson,  the  fact  of  a  University  which  was  not 
his  own  Alma  Mater,  stepping  in  at  this  early  date 
to  recognise  him,  was  a  double  honour.  Upon  the 
University  of  Edinburgh  he  had  no  claims,  except 


AUTHORSHIP  147 

that  of  intellectual  ability  and  the  accomplishment 
of  ereat  achievements.  It  was  these  that  were 
recognised  by  his  degree. 

It  must  have  been  singularly  gratifying  to 
Matheson  that  one  of  the  men  who  were  capped 
along  with  him  on  the  occasion  was  the  scholarly 
and  saintly  Dr.  Hugh  Macmillan  of  Greenock. 
Dr.  Macmillan  was  an  early  friend  of  Matheson's. 
He  was  among  the  first  to  recognise  his  genius, 
and  to  give  him  every  assistance  and  encourage- 
ment in  his  literary  pursuits.  Professor  Charteris, 
in  presenting  Matheson  to  the  Chancellor  (Lord 
President  Inglis),  said  : 

I  have  also  the  honour  to  introduce  the  Rev.  George 
Matheson,  B.D.,  Minister  of  the  Parish  of  Innellan.  My 
Lord,  Mr.  Matheson,  though  young  in  years,  and  though 
he  has  had  to  struggle  against  a  physical  disadvantage, 
which  would  have  been  to  most  men  ample  reason  for 
his  enjoying  a  life  of  ease  rather  than  of  labour,  has 
already  won  for  himself  a  high  place  on  the  roll  of 
scholars  and  divines.  His  first  book,  Aids  to  the  Study 
of  Gej'man  Theology^  is  a  remarkable  proof  of  his  power 
to  present  an  accurate  and  interesting,  and  even  lively, 
picture  of  the  work  of  every  German  theologian  and 
critic  of  distinction,  and  students  have  welcomed  it. 
His  next  book,  entitled  The  Growth  of  tJie  Spirit  of 
Chidstianity,  passes  with  a  scholar's  sure  step  and  a  poet's 
eye,  and  the  graceful  ease  of  thorough  culture,  over  the 
whole  wide  field  of  Christian  history,  showing  the 
increasing  power  which  runs  through  all  the  ages,  and 
leading  to  much  thought  on  the  unequalled  opportunities 
which  are  in  the  power  of  the  Church  of  our  own  day.  He 
is  also  the  author  of  several  well-known  papers,  one  of 
which,  in  The  Contemporary  Reviezu,  on  the  "  Originality  of 
the  Character  of  Christ,"  may  be  specially  mentioned. 
It  is  not  only,  as  in  some  sort,  a  crown  for  the  past,  but 


148  AUTHORSHIP 

as  an  encouragement  to  other  labours,  that  the  Senatus 
Academicus  asks  your  Lordship  to  confer  on  Mr.  Matheson 
the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity,  which  he  has  already 
won  so  well.  """^'^^ 

Dr.  Matheson  received,  in  the  following  year,  a 
unanimous  call  to  succeed  Dr.  Gumming  at  Crown 
Court  Church,  London.  It  is  said  that  one  reason 
for  his  declining  this  call  was  the  failure  on  the 
part  of  the  managers  to  accept  the  condition  that 
he  should  be  permitted  to  exchange  freely  with  the 
other  Presbyterian  and  Nonconforming  ministers 
in  London.  Whatever  truth  there  may  be  in  this, 
it  points  to  a  fact  which  cannot  be  gainsaid.  There 
was  no  exclusiveness  in  Matheson's  ecclesiastical 
views  or  leanings.  His  sympathies  were  sufficiently 
broad  to  include  all  the  Creeds  and  Communions 
of  Christendom.  His  work  on  The  Growth  of 
the  Spirit  of  Christianity  showed  that  he  regarded 
every  step  in  the  history  of  the  Church,  every 
fresh  departure  and  secession,  as  a  manifestation 
of  progress,  a  reaching  forward  to  a  fuller  realisation 
of  absolute  truth.  So  keen  was  his  appreciation  of 
other  Churches,  and  even  of  heathen  religions,  that 
on  one  occasion,  when  advocating  in  private,  and 
with  extraordinary  force  and  eloquence,  the  cause 
of  foreign  missions,  he  so  impressed  his  hearers 
with  his  fitness  for  the  task  that  they  urged  him  to 
go  himself.  They  felt  that  he,  by  his  intellectual 
presentation  of  Christian  truth  to  the  Hindu  mind, 
would  do  more  to  convert  the  natives  of  India  to 
the  Christian  religion  than  the  ordinary  missionary, 


AUTHORSHIP  149 

who  depended  on  weapons  that  were  outworn  and 

effete.     ''  I  go !  "  he  said,  and  paused.     '*  No,  I 

dare  not  go.  I  am  afraid  I  would  be  converted  to 
Brahmlnism." 

There  can  be  no  doubt,  however,  that  other 
reasons  weighed  with  him  in  declining  the  call  to 
London.  It  would  have  been  a  wrench  to  break, 
even  in  a  modified  form,  his  connection  with  the 
Church  of  Scotland,  and  the  difficulties  and  un- 
certainties of  the  situation  could  not  be  denied. 
All  the  same,  he  had  really  nothing  to  fear.  He 
could,  in  London,  have  lived  the  life  of  the  student, 
and  he  would  certainly  have  gathered  round  him  a 
congregation  in  full  sympathy  with  his  views.  In 
a  very  short  time  his  preaching  would  have  been 
one  of  the  attractions  of  the  capital,  and  the 
strangers  and  foreigners  who  crowd  into  it  would 
of  themselves  have  filled  his  church.  The  more 
likely  condition  insisted  on  by  him  would  be,  that 
he  should  be  freed  from  all  parochial  and  congrega- 
tional work,  so  that  his  full  strength  might  be 
given  to  preaching.  Presbyterianism,  unfortunately, 
has  not  even  yet  risen  to  this  height,  and  he  showed 
wisdom  in  choosing  to  remain,  for  the  time  being, 
in  Innellan. 

He  now  began  to  write  regularly  for  the  press. 
During  the  next  six  years,  until  the  time  that  he 
was  called  to  St.  Bernard's,  he  wrote  some  fifty 
articles  to  the  more  important  theological  magazines 
of  the  day.  To  The  Expositor  alone  he  contributed 
within    that   period   twenty-five   articles.      Among 


150  AUTHORSHIP 

them  was  the  series  on  ''The  Historical  Christ  of 
St.  Paul,"  another  on  the  ''  Minor  Prophets," 
and  a  third  on  "  Scripture  Studies  of  the  Heavenly 
State."  Single  articles  by  him  appeared  on  such 
subjects  as  ''The  Paradox  of  Christian  Ethics," 
"Christianity  and  Judaism,"  "Christianity's  First 
Invitation  to  the  World,"  "The  Outer  and  the 
Inner  Glory,"  "The  Hundred  and  Thirty-Ninth 
Psalm,"  and  "  Spiritual  Sacrifices."  He  also  wrote  a 
series  of  three  articles  to  The  Catholic  Presbyterian 
on  "  German  Theologians  of  the  Day,"  and  another 
on  "The  Judaic  Vision  of  the  Happy  Kingdom." 
His  article  on  "  The  Basis  of  Religious  Belief" 
appeared  in  The  British  ajid  Foreign  Evangelical 
Review.  He  wrote  in  The  British  Quarterly 
Review  on  "The  Christian  Idea  of  God,"  in  The 
Princeton  Review  on  "  Christ  and  the  Doctrine  of 
Immortality,"  in  The  Modern  Review  on  "The 
Religious  Forces  of  the  Reformation  Era,"  and  in 
The  Homiletic  Magazine  on  "  Evolution  in  Relation 
to  Miracle."  Nine  articles  by  him  appeared  between 
November  1884  and  June  1886  in  The  Monthly 
Interpreter.  They  were  on  "Christ's  Exaltation 
in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,"  "The  Continuity 
of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,"  "  The  Three 
Christian  Sympathies,"  "The  Empire  of  Christ," 
"Christ's  Defence  of  his  Parabolic  Teaching," 
"  Christ's  Glorifying  Work,"  "  The  Order  of  Christ's 
Revelation,"  "  Exaltation  of  Christ  in  the  Epistle 
to  the  Philippians,"  and  "The  Promise  of  Revela- 
tion." 


AUTHORSHIP  151 

Two  things  strike  one  forcibly  on  reading  this 
long  series  of  articles.  The  one  is  Matheson's 
amazing  intellectual  fertility,  and  the  other  is  the 
rare  quality  of  the  work  which  he  produced.  In 
reflecting  on  the  former  It  should  not  be  forgotten 
that  these  were  but  chips  from  his  workshop.  He 
was  all  the  time  engaged  on  books  that  demanded 
research  and  thought,  and  preaching  sermons  of 
the  first  order,  the  delivery  of  which  alone  must 
have  been  a  great  strain  on  his  nervous  energy. 
The  last  ten  years  of  his  residence  at  Innellan 
were,  from  a  literary  point  of  view,  the  most  pro- 
ductive and  important  in  his  whole  life.  He 
experienced  during  that  period  a  quickening  of 
his  mental  nature  which  It  is  hard  to  parallel.  Dr. 
SIme,  who  saw  much  of  him  during  these  years, 
bears  witness  to  his  extraordinary  activity,  and 
also  to  the  method  which  utilised  every  hour  of  the 
day.  It  was  this  combination  which  enabled  him 
to  accomplish  what  he  did.  ''  He  talked  rapidly," 
says  the  doctor,  ''walked  rapidly,  thought  rapidly, 
worked  rapidly  ;  but  his  work  was  methodical  in 
the  extreme.  Every  hour  of  the  day  had  its 
allotted  kind  and  amount  of  work,  which  was 
never  by  fits  and  starts,  or  by  sudden  impulses  and 
inspirations.  A  more  ready  man  of  thought,  for 
his  mind  was  ever  full,  I  have  not  ever  met." 
Continuing,  he  remarks  : 

At  certain  arranged  hours  he  read  the  newspapers 
or  the  monthlies,  or  general  literature,  or  works  of  science, 
philosophy,  and   theology ;  or   paced   about   the   library 


152  AUTHORSHIP 

alone,  for  an  hour,  thinking  ;  or  dictated  to  his  amanuensis 
an  expository  gem  of  thought  for  the  Sunday.  As 
reveaHng  his  systematic  method  of  work,  it  may  be 
mentioned  that  whilst  dictating,  in  full  fervour  and  force, 
he  would  abruptly  cease  for  the  day  when  the  time  devoted 
for  such  workmanship  had  elapsed ;  sometimes  in  the 
middle  of  a  sentence,  often  in  the  middle  of  a  paragraph. 
Then  on  the  next  morning,  on  returning  to  the  theme, 
he  had  the  last  two  or  three  sheets  carefully  read  over, 
and  resumed  the  dictation,  his  whole  soul  in  the  work, 
fresh  and  animated  as  before.  The  same  would  occur 
on  studying  the  most  fascinating  poem,  or  fiction,  or 
piece  of  criticism ;  such  as  Macaulay's,  Carlyle's,  Pro- 
fessor Max  Miiller's,  or  Huxley's  ;  not  less  than  the  most 
abstract  German  metaphysics  and  theology,  or  the  most 
technical  of  scientific  treatises.  On  coming  back  the  next 
day  to  the  study  of  the  work  on  hand,  here  likewise  a  page 
or  two  would  be  re-read,  and  in  full  intensity  and  with 
fresh  power  the  interest  in  the  work  would  be  renewed. 
Never  did  he  allow  himself  to  be  fatigued,  hence  the 
amount  and  the  variety  of  work  he  was  capable  of,  for 
he  was  always  at  his  best  in  reception  and  in  creation. 
Again,  at  a  certain  hour  each  day  he  would  go  out  with 
his  private  secretary  or  devoted  sister  to  visit  his  par- 
ishioners, and  even  these  with  methodical  preparation. 
He  had  his  meals  every  day  at  the  same  time  ;  at  the 
same  hour  every  night  he  went  to  bed ;  and  at  the  same 
hour  every  morning  he  rose,  jocund  as  the  morn,  for  the 
work  of  the  day,  maintaining  a  regular,  normal,  harmonious 
life  from  day  to  day. 

The  most  important  of  the  articles  which  he 
published  at  this  time  are  apologetic  in  their  nature. 
His  great  aim  was  to  commend  Christianity  to  the 
times,  to  show  that  modern  science  and  criticism 
had  in  no  way  impaired,  much  less  destroyed,  its 
foundations  ;  but  that,  on  the  contrary,  every  fresh 
discovery  in  the  world  of  mind  or  of  matter,  or  in 


AUTHORSHIP  153 

the  field  of  history,  simply  revealed  its  inherent 
wealth,  its  boundless  resources,  and  its  eternal 
adaptability  to  the  needs  of  man.  This  is  Chris- 
tian Theism,  and,  having  grasped  the  central  truth, 
Matheson  was  the  very  man  to  commend  Chris- 
tianity to  the  inquiring  and  thoughtful  minds  of 
the  age.  His  method  was  historical,  broad,  and 
sympathetic.  He  had  for  years  been  engaged  in 
a  profound  study  of  natural  religion.  The  religions 
of  the  ancient  world,  In  particular,  attracted  him. 
He  was  also  familiar  with  the  different  systems  of 
doctrine  that  had  sprung  out  of  Christianity  itself, 
and  with  the  various  currents  of  unbelief  and 
rationalism  that  had  appeared  during  the  Christian 
era.  He  had  made  a  very  special  study  of  English 
Deism,  and  of  the  apologetic  works  associated  with 
the  names  of  Butler  and  of  Paley.  iVbove  all,  he 
had  steeped  his  mind  so  thoroughly  in  the  specu- 
lative theories  of  the  great  German  thinkers  on 
religion,  from  the  time  of  Kant,  and  with  the  works 
of  the  theologians  inspired  by  them,  that  he  could 
move  with  ease  and  freedom  in  the  world  of  modern 
thought,  and  apply  his  own  fundamental  principles 
to  existing  conditions.  These  conditions  were 
beginning  to  be  radically  affected  by  the  spirit  of 
science,  and  he  bent  himself  with  his  whole  force 
to  master  the  principles  which  underlay  that  spirit. 
Especially  did  he  make  himself  thoroughly  con- 
versant with  the  works  of  its  great  exponent  and 
interpreter,  Herbert  Spencer,  and  in  a  book  which 
he  was  to  publish  before  leaving  Innellan,  and  which, 


154  AUTHORSHIP 

to  my  thinking,  is  perhaps  his  greatest  work,  he 
produced  an  ''  Apology  of  the  Christian  Religion  " 
against  the  attacks  made  upon  it  by  that  agnosticism 
which  was  the  offspring  of  modern  science.  It  will 
serve  our  purpose  to  select  two  or  three  of  the 
more  important  articles,  looked  at  from  this  point 
of  view,  and  briefly  state  the  thought  that  inspired 
them. 

The  problem  which  he  had  to  face  in  his  article 
on  the  ''Originality  of  the  Character  of  Christ"  was 
the  one  raised  by  Baur  and  Strauss.  In  other 
words,  he  had  to  show  that  behind  the  Gospels, 
and  behind  the  history  from  which  they  were 
supposed  to  have  sprung,  there  was  an  element 
which  had  to  be  accounted  for,  and  that  was  the 
ideal  which  was  embodied  in  the  historical  Christ. 
Grant  that  the  Gospels  were  the  result  of  the 
conflict  between  the  Petrine  and  Pauline  schools  of 
thought  which  arose  in  the  Apostolic  Church,  and 
concede  the  contention  that  the  ground  of  that 
conflict  was  the  offspring  of  mere  myth,  there  still 
remained  the  Christian  ideal  which  neither  the  one 
theory  nor  the  other  could  explain.  Matheson  then 
proceeds  to  give  an  historical  sketch  of  the  difl"erent 
conceptions  of  the  ideal  man  which  had  animated 
the  ancient  world.  He  reviews  in  turn  the  Jewish, 
Platonic,  Greek,  and  Roman  ideals,  and  he  finds 
that  one  and  all  of  them  come  short  of  the  Christ 
of  history.  He  has  no  difficulty  in  showing  that  the 
natural  mind,  as  represented  in  the  searchings  of 
the  ancient  world  after  the  highest  type  of  manhood, 


AUTHORSHIP  155 

has  come  woefully  short  of  the  Christ  of  the  Gospels, 
and  he  is  driven  to  the  conclusion  that  the  explana- 
tion can  be  sought  in  one  direction  only,  in  the  fresh 
revelation  which  was  imparted  to  the  world  in  the 
Incarnate  Word.     ''If,"  he  concludes, 

we  find  Judea  reaping  where  she  has  not  sown,  and 
gathering  where  she  has  not  strawed ;  if  we  see  her  the 
birthplace  of  an  idea  which  surpassed  her  power  of 
origination,  and  when  originated  surpassed  her  power  of 
comprehension  ;  if  in  her  contact  with  the  Gentile  nations 
we  fail  to  discover  any  germs  from  which  that  idea  could 
have  naturally  sprung;  if  we  find  it  in  essence  and  in 
portraiture  directly  at  variance  with  all  heathen  aspira- 
tions, reversing  the  world's  ideal  of  physical  strength, 
transforming  its  estimate  of  mental  power,  casting  into  the 
shade  its  conception  of  aesthetic  culture,  and  placing  on  a 
contrary  basis  its  hope  of  a  theocratic  power ;  if  we  find  it 
introducing  a  new  standard  of  heroism  which  caused  every 
valley  to  be  exalted,  and  every  mountain  to  be  made  low ; 
and  if,  above  all,  we  perceive  that  when  that  standard  of 
heroism  rose  upon  the  world,  it  rose  upon  a  foreign  soil 
which  received  it  as  an  alien  and  an  adversary,  are  we  not 
driven  to  ask  if,  even  on  the  lowest  computation,  we  have 
not  reached  the  evidence  of  a  new  life  in  humanity,  the 
outpouring  of  a  fresh  vitality  and  the  manifestation  of  a 
higher  power  ? 

In  his  article  on  ''Science  and  the  Christian 
Idea  of  Prayer,"  he  tries  to  find  a  place  for  the 
believing  heart  in  the  new  world  of  inviolable  forces 
which  the  modern  world  was  fast  girding  round  it. 
Science  contended  that  nature  is  immutable,  that  its 
laws  are  unknown,  and  the  idea  of  Christian  prayer 
that  was  current  at  the  time  seemed  to  contradict 
both  these  positions.  Matheson,  on  the  other  hand, 
declares  that  Christianity  really  admits  them,  and 


156  AUTHORSHIP 

that  thus  far  both  it  and  science  are  at  one.  There 
is  a  common  ground  on  which  both  can  meet,  and 
that  is  the  beHef  that  the  veil  may  be  lifted,  that  the 
Creator  and  creation  are  in  communion,  or,  as  he 
puts  it :  ''  According  to  the  modern  doctrine  of 
forces  there  is  one  inscrutable  and  ultimate  Force 
which  is  everywhere  present  and  everywhere 
persistent,  and  in  which  all  other  forms  and  forces 
live  and  move  and  have  their  being.  The  universe 
is  but  its  manifestation,  the  laws  of  the  universe  are 
but  its  expression.  Christianity  employs  a  different 
terminology,  but  it  asks  no  more.  It  only  desires 
the  possibility  of  some  communication  from  the 
infinite  to  the  finite.  Like  science  it  perceives  an 
immutable  nature,  like  science  it  recognises  its 
ignorance  of  that  nature,  and  like  science  it  fore- 
casts the  hope  that  the  law  which  is  unknown  will 
in  some  way  manifest  its  presence."  Here,  then,  is 
a  sphere  in  which  Christian  prayer  can  exercise 
itself.  Its  great  desire  is  that  the  will  of  God 
should  be  revealed  so  that  the  heart  of  the 
petitioner  may  know  and  be  in  sympathy  with  it, 
and  that  the  life  of  the  believer  may  be  in  con- 
formity with  its  behests.  It  is  this  which  differen- 
tiates the  Christian  from  the  Pagan  idea  of  prayer. 
The  Pagan  knows  of  nothing  save  individual  desires, 
the  Christian  of  nothing  save  the  desires  of  God, 
and  so  he  concludes  : 

Paganism  had  questioned  what  it  should  eat  and  what 
it  should  drink,  and  wherewithal  it  should  be  clothed  ; 
Christianity  perceived  that  none  of  these  things  consti- 


AUTHORSHIP  157 

tuted  the  essence  of  human  need.  Paganism  desired  the 
gratification  of  the  individual  Hfe ;  Christianity  started 
with  the  definite  assumption  that  the  only  ultimate 
gratification  which  that  life  could  find  was  to  cease  from 
its  own  self-seeking,  and  desire  the  universal  good. 
Christian  prayer  has  become  the  antithesis  of  heathen 
supplication;  and  it  has  reached  this  antithesis  by  entering 
into  union  with  that  scientific  life  of  Nature  where  the 
interest  of  the  one  is  the  interest  of  the  many,  and  where 
the  liberty  of  the  individual  is  the  service  of  the  highest 
law. 

If  there  was  one  subject  more  than  another  in 
which  Matheson  was  deeply  interested  it  was 
Immortality.  It  is  the  theme  of  his  earliest  and 
of  his  latest  writings.  There  is  hardly  a  book  or 
an  article  written  by  him  in  which  there  is  not 
some  reference  to  it.  It  was  with  him  a  subject  of 
perennial  interest.  Nor  was  there  any  question  to 
which  he  had  given  a  more  definite  answer.  He 
had  no  doubt  concerning  it.  He  believed  as 
strongly  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul  as  he  did  in 
his  own  personality.  Some  may  think  that  the 
reason  of  his  absorbing  interest  in  this  subject  was 
the  fact  of  his  being  blind.  It  was  natural  that  he 
should  look  forward  to  another  world  in  which  the 
film  would  be  taken  from  his  eyes  and  he  could  see 
the  "  King  in  His  beauty."  Matheson  had  formed 
to  himself  a  very  vivid  conception  of  what  the 
Hereafter  was  to  be  like.  He  had  created  a 
'*  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth,"  and  in  moments 
of  frank  communication  he  gave  his  friends  a 
glimpse  of  what  he  himself  saw  ;  but  his  hope  of 
immortality    arose    from    another    cause.       As    a 


158  AUTHORSHIP 

spiritually  minded  man,  as  a  Christian  theologian, 
as  one  who  had  pondered  the  problems  which  face 
all  serious  men,  he  felt  that  there  could  be  no 
escape  from  a  belief  in  this  great  doctrine.  The 
very  idea  of  God  made  it  necessary  to  his  think- 
ing, and  the  Christian  religion  would  fall  to  pieces 
were  the  doctrine  of  immortality  to  be  blotted 
out. 

In  two  articles  which  he  wrote  at  this  time,  the 
one  in  The  Expositor  and  the  other  in  The  Princeton 
Review,  he  deals  with  both  sides  of  the  subject :  the 
future  life  of  the  soul,  and  the  future  condition  of 
the  body.  It  is  in  the  light*  of  Christ's  life,  death, 
and  resurrection  that  he  views  it ;  and  he  contends 
that  the  believer  who  is  mystically  united  to  Christ, 
who  is  a  member  of  His  Divine  body,  is  bound  to 
be  a  sharer  in  that  life  which  Christ  brought  to 
light.  The  power  of  Christ  in  the  believing  soul 
will  make  it  eternal,  and  the  glorified  body  of  Christ 
will  also  be  shared  in  by  the  Christian.  Apart  from 
Christ,  Matheson  does  not  discuss  the  question. 
What  immortality  there  may  be  for  those  outside 
the  pale  of  Christianity  he  does  not  in  these  two 
articles  pretend  to  consider.  As  a  Christian  theo- 
logian he  confines  himself  to  the  subject  which  his 
vocation  naturally  called  him  to  ponder.  To  most 
minds  the  question  of  the  soul's  "  transition  garment," 
as  Matheson  calls  the  resurrection  body,  will  be  of 
more  interest  than  the  question  of  the  soul's  future 
life  ;  for  the  latter  is  tacitly  accepted,  while  with 
regard    to    the    former    not   a    few   are    in    doubt. 


AUTHORSHIP  159 

Matheson's  views  on  this  subject   then  are  worth 
considering.      He  says  : 

We  believe  the  pervading  thought  of  the  New  Testament 
to  be  that  the  resurrection  body  of  Christ  forms  the  germ 
or  nucleus  out  of  which  is  to  spring  the  transition 
garment  of  the  believing  soul.  Let  the  student  of  the 
Gospels  and  the  Pauline  epistles  approach  their  study 
with  such  a  thought  in  his  mind,  and  he  will  be  struck 
with  the  marvellous  concentration  of  all  other  points 
around  it.  He  will  find  a  new  significance  in  that  grain 
of  mustard-seed  which,  though  buried,  rises  up  into  a 
mighty  tree  and  branches  forth  into  the  dwellings  of  the 
homeless.  He  will  see  a  fresh  meaning  in  those  elements 
of  communion  which  are  professedly  the  symbols  of 
Christ's  earthly  body — the  body  broken  in  death,  but  dis- 
tributed in  resurrection.  He  will  read  in  another  light 
those  narratives  in  which  the  Messiah  conquers  death,  and 
measure  by  a  new  standard  the  "  power  of  His  resurrec- 
tion." He  will  ask,  not  without  intelligence,  if  when 
Christ  spoke  of  the  Father's  house  with  many  mansions — 
the  house  which  His  own  resurrection  was  to  prepare — He 
meant  anything  less  than  that  human  body  which  had 
been  the  scene  of  the  Incarnation  ?  He  will  ask  yet  again, 
and  with  still  deepening  conviction,  if  when  Paul  spoke  of 
"  the  building  of  God,  the  house  not  made  with  hands, 
eternal  in  the  heavens,"  he  meant  anything  less  than  that 
same  Father's  house  which  the  evangelist  had  beheld  in 
the  form  of  Jesus  ?  He  will  inquire  if  Paul  had  any  mean- 
ing when  he  said  that  Christians  were  "  members  of 
Christ's  body,"  that  they  were  crucified  together  with 
Christ,  that  they  were  "  buried  with  Him  by  baptism  into 
His  death,"  that  they  were  already  "  risen  with  Him,"  and 
"  made  to  sit  together  with  Him  in  heavenly  places,"  that 
the  Christian  dead  "slept  in  Him,"  and  that  He  at  His 
coming  would  "  bring  them  with  Him  " ;  above  all,  that 
their  rising  was  so  bound  up  in  His  resurrection,  that  if 
there  were  no  resurrection  of  the  dead,  then  Christ  Him- 
self was  not  risen  ;  but  that,  if  He  were  risen,  they  had  al- 
ready their  "  conversation  in  heaven."    These  are  startling 


160  AUTHORSHIP 

statements,  but  they  are  marvellously  consistent  with  one 
fundamental  thought ;  they  point,  in  our  view,  unmistak- 
ably to  the  belief  that  when  the  soul  is  clothed  upon  with 
the  house  which  is  from  heaven,  it  is  clothed  upon  with  the 
resurrection  body  of  the  Son  of  Man.  The  effect  of  such 
a  belief  was  to  abolish  death.  The  soul  no  longer  needed 
to  linger  in  an  impersonal  sleep,  awaiting  the  consumma- 
tion of  all  things.  "  He  that  believeth  on  Me  shall  never 
die,"  was  the  last  word  on  the  subject  of  immortality. 

The  most  striking  thought  in  his  article  on  the 
''  Christian  Idea  of  God  "  is  one  which  he  elaborates 
more  fully  in  his  Baird  Lecture.  It  is  his  view 
of  revelation.  **  Revelation,"  he  says,  ''  signifies 
the  drawing  back  of  a  veil.  Supernaturalism 
worships  the  veil  and  would  perish  by  its  with- 
drawal. Rationalism  has  no  veil  to  withdraw. 
Revelation  is  the  middle  form  between  super- 
naturalism  and  rationalism."  Matheson  held  that 
revelation  was  impossible  except  on  the  belief  that 
there  is  something  in  common  between  the  Divine 
and  the  human,  between  God  and  man.  Unless 
man  had  in  him  something  akin  to  God  he  would 
be  unable  to  understand  God's  manifestation  of 
Himself;  and  unless  there  was  in  God  something 
akin  to  man,  God  would  be  unable  to  hold  com- 
munion with  the  creature.  Hence  in  the  Incarna- 
tion, God  manifest  in  the  flesh,  Matheson  finds  the 
Christian  idea  both  of  God  and  of  man.  In  the 
article  on  the  *'  Basis  of  Religious  Belief,"  he  enters 
on  a  very  fine  discussion  of  the  different  grounds 
for  this  belief  as  held  by  various  schools  of  thought, 
both  without  and  within  the  Christian  Church.     As 


AUTHORSHIP  161 

IS  customary  with  him,  he  treats  the  subject 
historically,  he  shows  how  each  basis  when  it  proved 
untenable  gave  birth  to  a  new  one,  until  at  last  the 
theory  of  Schleiermacher  is  reached,  which  is  only 
the  Christian  conception  of  Faith  in  another  form  ; 
that  "the  sense  of  absolute  dependence"  is  the 
real  basis  of  religious  belief.  To  feel  our  limitation 
is  to  take  the  first  step  towards  a  conception  of  the 
infinite.  **  Faith,"  he  remarks,  **  is  essentially  a 
Christian  term.  It  differs  from  religious  belief  in 
general,  as  the  species  differs  from  the  genus. 
Belief  is  the  recognition  of  a  Divine  principle, 
faith  is  the  recognition  of  a  Divine  principle  which 
bears  to  us  a  moral  relation.  The  peculiarity  of 
faith  as  a  religious  phenomenon,  in  other  words  the 
peculiarity  of  Christianity  as  a  system  of  belief, 
consists  in  this,  that  it  imports  into  the  idea  of  God 
an  element  of  moral  rectitude  with  which  we  as 
worshippers  have  specially  to  do.  Nevertheless 
the  basis  of  Christian  faith  is,  by  its  own  admission, 
precisely  the  same  as  the  basis  of  religious  belief  in 
general,  the  sense  of  absolute  dependence." 

These  articles,  dealing  with  some  of  the  most 
important  subjects  in  theology,  and  handled  by 
Dr.  Matheson  in  an  earnest  and  scholarly  manner, 
however  valuable  in  themselves,  were  but  a  prepara- 
tion for  his  next  book,  published  in  1881,  under 
the  title  of  the  Natural  Elements  of  Revealed 
Theology.  This  was  the  Baird  Lecture  for  that 
year.  It  was  a  distinct  honour  to  be  appointed  to 
this  Foundation,  especially  at  so  early  a  period  in 
II 


162  AUTHORSHIP 

life.  He  was  only  in  his  thirty-ninth  year,  and 
with  a  single  exception  this  lectureship  has  all 
along  been  given  to  men  who  at  the  time  of  their 
appointment  were,  to  say  the  least,  beyond  the 
meridian  of  life.  It  has  always  been  regarded 
partly  as  a  reward  for  lengthened  services  to  the 
Church  and  to  theological  literature,  and  partly  as 
an  opportunity  for  men  of  ripe  scholarship  to  give 
their  matured  views  to  the  world.  The  other 
exception  referred  to  was  Professor  Flint.  He,  like 
Matheson,  was  Baird  Lecturer  at  a  comparatively 
early  age,  and  it  is  remarkable  that  the  lectures  of 
these  two  are  regarded  on  all  hands  as  among  the 
best  that  have  been  delivered  on  this  Foundation. 
Some  may  see  in  this  an  argument  for  the  appoint- 
ment of  young  men,  but  it  ought  to  be  remembered 
that  every  youthful  theologian  is  not  a  Flint  or  a 
Matheson. 

The  lecturer's  design  was  to  ascertain  to  what 
extent  the  doctrines  of  revealed  reliction  have  a 
basis  in  the  natural  instincts  of  the  human  mind. 
In  the  introductory  chapter  he  discusses  at  length 
the  main  thought  of  his  article  on  the  "Christian 
Idea  of  God,"  namely,  the  nature  and  possibility  of 
revelation.  Elaborating  the  idea  which  we  have 
already  seen  to  lie  at  the  basis  of  his  views  on  the 
subject,  that  revelation  simply  means  the  "  drawing 
back  of  a  veil,"  he  remarks  :  ''  The  act  of  drawing 
back  the  veil  is  the  supernatural  part  of  the  process. 
It  is  too  high  to  be  touched  by  the  human  hand, 
and  therefore  its  removal  demands  the  agency  of 


AUTHORSHIP  163 

another  Hand.  Yet  no  sooner  is  the  veil  withdrawn 
than  the  mystery  vanishes.  The  human  spirit  recog- 
nises the  vision  not  as  a  new  vision,  but  as  that  for 
which  unconsciously  it  has  been  waiting  all  along. 
It  bounds  to  meet  it  as  the  normal  fulfilment  of  its 
destiny." 

This  conception  of  revelation  will  be  generally 
accepted  as  sound  and  satisfactory,  and  the  attitude 
taken  up  towards  natural  religion,  just  keeps  the 
mean  between  too  sombre  and  too  flattering- 
a  view  of  the  latter.  Christianity  is  not  a  mere 
collection  of  mysteries  standing  in  no  relation  to 
human  reason  or  experience,  and  incapable  of 
commending  itself  to  the  human  heart  as  the 
solution  of  its  problems  and  the  satisfaction  of 
its  needs  and  desires.  It  is  the  complement  of 
human  nature,  it  gives  to  nature  the  very  thing 
she  needed,  it  satisfies  the  instincts  manifested  in 
ethnic  or  natural  religion. 

In  setting  himself  to  prove  this  thesis.  Dr. 
Matheson  first  of  all  endeavours  to  ascertain  what 
the  instincts  and  aspirations  of  natural  religion  are. 
He  seeks  for  these  in  the  religions  which  prevailed 
before  the  advent  of  Christ,  and  in  them  he  dis- 
covers three  great  problems,  namely.  What  is  God  ? 
What  is  His  relation  to  humanity.^  Is  His  Glory 
consistent  with  the  existence  of  moral  evil  ?  The 
solution  of  the  first  he  finds  in  the  Christian 
doctrine  of  the  Trinity ;  of  the  second  in  the  tenet 
of  the  Incarnation  ;  and  of  the  third  in  the  faith  in 
the  Atonement.     Dr.    Matheson  works  out  these 


164  AUTHORSHIP 

ideas  with  great  originality,  eloquence,  and  skill. 
The  book  was  welcomed  by  the  public  as  a  glad 
surprise.  It  was  felt  to  be  a  new  departure  in 
Scottish  theology,  and  was  hailed  as  significant 
of  a  broadening  of  religious  thought.  Dr.  Robert- 
son NicoU,  in  the  discriminating  and  sympathetic 
appreciation  which  he  gave  in  The  British  Weekly 
of  Dr.  Matheson  after  the  latter's  death,  referring 
to  this  course  of  lectures,  remarks  :  "  The  first  time 
we  saw  Dr.  Matheson  must  have  been  some- 
where about  1 88 1.  He  was  delivering  the  second 
of  the  Baird  Lectures  on  a  Sunday  evening  in 
St.  George's,  Edinburgh.  The  great  building  was 
but  scantily  filled,  but  the  address,  alike  in  matter, 
in  form,  and  in  utterance,  was  worthy  of  any 
audience.     It  seemed,"  he  continues, 

as  if  we  had  in  Dr.  Matheson  the  coming  prophet  of  the 
time.  His  face  was  turned  with  eager  welcome  towards  the 
new  light,  and  his  strong  brain  was  busy  in  the  work  of 
reconstruction  and  reconciliation.  When  the  lecture  was 
over  we  went  to  the  Synod  Hall  and  heard  the  latter  part 
of  an  oration  by  Principal  Cairns.  This  was  a  grand 
defence  of  the  old  apologetical  positions,  delivered  with 
overwhelming  passion  and  uncompromising  in  its  ortho- 
doxy. That  evening  was  indeed  spent  well  and  nobly. 
We  had  heard  the  fittest  representatives  of  the  old  school 
and  of  the  new. 

The  late  Professor  Bruce,  in  an  able  review  of 
Dr.  Matheson's  book  in  The  British  and  Foreign 
Evangelical  Review,  was  impressed  much  in  the 
same  way  as  Dr.  Nicoll.  He  says:  *' With  this 
publication  the  Baird  Lectureship  passes  into  a  new 
phase.     The  book  before  us,  while  distinctly  and 


AUTHORSHIP  165 

decidedly  evangelic,  Is  modern,  liberal,  and  original. 
It  may  not  be  the  ablest  of  the  Baird  series, — that 
honour  probably  belongs  to  Dr.  Flint's  two  series 
of  lectures  on  Theism  and  Antitheism, — but  it  is 
certainly  the  most  genial.  Dr.  Matheson  has 
poetry  and  genius  in  him,  and  It  comes  out  in  all  he 
writes,  and  very  markedly  in  this  work  on  the 
Natural  Elements  of  Revealed  Theology,  In  which 
there  is  hardly  a  dull  or  a  prosaic  sentence,"  and  he 
concludes  as  follows  : 

The  book  is  an  earnest  and  eloquent  endeavour  to 
utilise  the  results  of  the  science  of  comparative  religion 
for  the  defence  and  commendation  of  Christianity  as  a 
revealed  religion.  Specially  worthy  of  note  is  the  mode 
in  which  the  doctrine  of  Atonement  is  handled,  the  theory 
advocated  being  what  may  be  called  the  organic,  in  which 
the  idea  of  Headship  plays  a  prominent  part.  Again,  we 
heartily  commend  this  work  to  the  attention  of  all  inter- 
ested in  such  questions,  and  especially  to  those  who  hail 
the  appearance  in  the  field  of  apologetics  of  a  theologian 
of  Dr.  Matheson's  type — orthodox,  yet  catholic  in  sym- 
pathy; a  sincere  believer  in  the  revelation  of  grace,  yet 
broad  and  genial  in  tendency. 

Reviews  of  the  book  appeared  in  many  of  the 
leading  journals,  and  while  for  the  most  part  dis- 
criminating in  their  criticism,  they  were  all,  without 
exception,  hearty  in  their  appreciation,  and  regarded 
the  author's  position  as  thoroughly  established,  and 
of  the  first  rank. 


CHAPTER  VII 

DEVOTION    AND    POETRY 

It  was  about  this  time  that  Dr.  Matheson  began 
to  publish  the  long  series  of  devotional  books  upon 
which,  in  the  opinion  of  some,  his  fame  will  rest. 
He  began  at  an  early  period  of  his  ministry,  as 
already  pointed  out,  to  substitute  for  the  reading  of 
the  Scripture  Lesson  a  meditation  on  some  text  or 
short  passage  of  Holy  Writ.  He  went  through  in 
this  way,  for  instance,  the  whole  of  the  Book  of 
Psalms,  and  his  thoughts,  carefully  conceived  and 
written  out,  are  contained  in  a  manuscript  volume. 
The  majority  of  his  hearers  wxre  greatly  struck  by 
these  meditations.  They  preferred  them  to  the 
ordinary  reading  of  the  Word,  and  they  proved 
more  helpful  to  some  than  the  sermon  which 
followed.  As  far  back  as  1872  he  was  urged,  as 
we  have  seen,  by  Dr.  Sime,  who  only  expressed  the 
desire  of  others,  to  publish  a  selection  of  these 
meditations  in  book-form.  It  was  not,  however, 
till  ten  years  afterwards,  in  1882,  that  he  acceded 
to  this  request,  and  gave  to  the  world  the  first  of  his 
devotional  books,  My  Aspirations.    1 1  was  published 

166 


DEVOTION   AND   POETRY         167 

by  Cassell  and  Company,  as  one  of  their  "  Heart 
Chords  Series."  Its  popularity  was  instantaneous. 
It  has  been  frequently  published  since,  the  last 
edition  comine  out  a  few  months  after  his  death. 
It  is  not,  I  think,  indulging  in  any  exaggeration  to 
say  that  no  modern  book  of  devotion  has  had  so 
wide  a  circulation  or  has  been  more  deeply  prized. 
Soon  after  its  publication  it  was  translated  into 
German,  and  it  has  formed  the  faithful  companion 
of  devout  souls  in  many  lands.  A  writer  in  The 
Examiner  of  November  lo,  1904,  in  a  review  of 
the  author's  book,  Leaves  for  Quiet  Hours,  remarks 
that  on  one  occasion  "he  stayed  at  the  house  of  a 
busy  literary  man,  through  whose  study  there  was 
constantly  streaming  a  flood  of  current  literature 
for  review.  He  was  attracted  by  the  deeply  spiritual 
view-point  of  his  host,  and  wondered  how  this 
attitude  of  mind  was  maintained  in  the  critical 
atmosphere  of  such  a  life.  A  hint  of  an  explanation 
was  accorded,  when  the  professional  reviewer  asked, 
*  Do  you  know  George  Matheson  ? '  and  when  he 
brought  a  shabby  little  book  from  his  bedroom 
(was  it  My  Aspirations  ?)  and  added,  '  I  read  this 
every  day.' " 

The  cordial  reception  given  to  this  booklet 
encouraged  him  to  repeat,  and  with  even  greater 
success,  his  venture  in  Moments  on  the  Mount, 
which  appeared  in  1884.  This  was  followed  by 
Voices  of  the  Spirit  in  1888,  Searchings  in  the 
Silence  in  1895,  Words  by  the  Wayside,  also 
translated   into    German,    in    1896,    Times   of  Re- 


168         DEVOTION   AND    POETRY 

tirement  in  1901,  Leaves  for  Quiet  Hours  in  1904, 
and  Rests  by  the  River,  the  last  book  published  by 
him,  in  1906,  a  few  months  before  his  death.  This 
list  would  make  a  good  record  for  any  ordinary 
man,  but  with  Matheson  these  books  were  the 
production  of  his  leisure  hours,  of  those  moments 
when  he  snatched  himself  from  the  strenuous 
labour  of  congregational  work  or  sustained  literary 
effort,  and  gave  up  his  spirit  to  meditation  on  God, 
man,  and  immortality.  They  were  in  very  truth 
the  fruit  of  his  times  of  retirement.  In  them  he 
breathed  forth  his  aspirations,  they  were  leaves 
plucked  in  the  byways  of  life  to  be  fondly  gazed 
at  in  quiet  hours.  In  them  he  soared  on  the 
wings  of  the  spirit,  and  they  tell  us  what  he  saw 
when  he  stood  on  the  Mount.  In  them  more  than 
in  any  other  of  his  writings  will  the  reader  find  the 
real  George  Matheson,  the  seer  who  saw  because 
he  had  felt,  and  who  quickened  the  emotions  of  his 
fellows  because  he  had  thought  deeply  on  human 
life  and  destiny. 

Matheson  must  have  known  in  publishing  these 
volumes  that  he  was  entering  on  a  field  which  had 
been  in  unbroken  possession  of  some  of  the  greatest 
names  in  Christian  literature,  and  that  he  would  be 
put  into  competition  "With  the  half-dozen  authors 
whose  devotional  works  had  for  generations  been 
regarded  as  classics.  It  is  indeed  by  the  highest 
standard  that  he  must  be  judged,  and  if  the 
opinion  of  his  contemporaries  be  of  any  value, 
he  will  rank   for   all  time  coming  as   one  of  the 


DEVOTION   AND   POETRY         169 

select  band  of  devotional  writers  whose  names  the 
world  will  not  readily  let  die.  Matheson's  great 
popularity  may  in  the  opinion  of  some  be  largely 
owing  to  the  fact  that  he  possesses  the  note  of 
modernity,  that  his  writings  appeal  to  the  day 
and  the  hour  in  a  way  that  cannot  be  expected 
of  meditations  written  centuries  ago.  But  the 
human  heart,  with  all  its  hopes  and  fears,  has 
remained  the  same,  and  a  book  that  has  the  true 
ring  of  devotion  in  it  is  as  permanent  as  the  spirit 
of  man  to  which  it  appeals,  and  will  comfort  and 
inspire  in  every  age  and  under  every  clime. 
True  genius  bridges  the  gulf  of  time  ;  it  destroys 
space ;  and  this  note  of  survival  marks,  in  the 
opinion  of  many,  the  devotional  writings  of  Dr. 
Matheson. 

Matheson  in  writinor  his  meditations  contented 
himself  with  being  an  interpreter  of  the  devotional 
writings  of  the  Jewish  people.  In  other  words,  he 
invariably  took  his  suggestions  from  some  passage 
of  Holy  Writ.  He  did  not  pretend  to  create  a 
new  religious  literature  ;  he  did  not  presume  to  be 
independent  of  the  source  of  all  inspiration  ;  he 
contented  himself  with  expounding  and  applying 
to  the  heart  of  the  modern  world  the  thoughts 
which  found  expression  at  the  hands  of  the  various 
writers  of  the  Bible.  In  this  we  see  a  true  instinct. 
Granted  the  gift  of  spiritual  insight,  deep  personal 
experience,  a  knowledge  of  human  life,  and  literary 
expression,  a  man  so  guided  could  not  fail  to  be  an 
interpreter  of  the  devout  life.     Matheson  possessed 


170        DEVOTION   AND   POETRY 

all  these  qualities  in  a  supreme  degree,  and  his 
books  could  not  fail  to  win  the  popularity  which 
they  so  quickly  achieved.  Having  put  himself  in 
communion  with  the  Spirit  of  truth,  he  was  able  to 
put  himself  in  touch  with  the  heart  of  humanity. 
Matheson  was  saturated  with  that  book  of  devotion 
which  is  the  pattern  and  precursor  of  that  mass  of 
literature,  embodying  the  experience  of  the  spiritual 
life,  which  has  grown  up  during  Christian  centuries. 
I  mean  the  Psalms.  **  They,"  as  Dean  Church 
remarks,  "are  the  records  of  the  purest  and  loftiest 
joy  of  which  the  human  soul  is  capable,  its  joy  in 
God ;  are  also  the  records  of  its  dreariest  and 
bitterest  anguish,  of  the  days  when  all  seems  dark 
between  itself  and  God,  of  its  doubts,  of  its  despair. 
Their  music  rans^es  from  the  richest  notes  of 
triumphant  rapture  to  the  saddest  minor  key." 
Like  the  Psalms,  Matheson's  devotional  writings 
**vary  widely  in  their  scale  and  tone.  They  reflect 
the  many  sides,  the  countless  moods,  of  the  soul  in 
its  passage  through  time,  confronted  with  eternity 
and  its  overpowering  possibilities.  They  tell  of 
quietness  and  confidence,  of  strength  and  victory 
and  peace.  They  tell,  too,  of  the  storm,  of  the 
struggle,  of  the  dividing  asunder  of  soul  and  spirit  ; 
of  perplexities  which  can  be  relieved  only  by  the 
certainties  of  death  ;  of  hope  wrestling,  indeed 
undismayed,  unwavering,  but  wrestling  in  the  dark, 
and  when  beheld  for  the  last  time  on  this  side  the 
grave  still  obstinate,  but  still  unsolaced.  Christian 
life  may  be  upon  the  heights  and  in  the  sunlight ; 


DEVOTION   AND   POETRY        171 

the  lines  fall  to  it  in  pleasant  places,  and  '  the  voices 
of  joy  and  gladness  are  in  its  dwellings.'  But  its 
lot  may  be  also  *in  the  deeps,'  where  'all  God's 
waves  and  storms  have  gone  over  it ' ;  where  the 
voices  are  those  of  '  deep  calling  unto  deep  amid 
the  roar  of  the  water-spouts,'  voices  of  anxiety 
and  distress,  of  '  majestic  pains,'  of  mysterious 
sorrow." 

Matheson  had  formed  a  definite  conception  of 
devotional  writing  as  a  whole.  He  was  familiar 
with  Augustine's  Manual,  and  its  wonderful 
spiritual  intensity  ;  with  the  lyrical  outpourings  of 
the  immortal  Imitation,  with  the  beautiful 
mysticism  of  Francis  of  Sales,  with  holy  George 
Herbert,  with  plain-spoken  and  melancholy  Jeremy 
Taylor,  and  with  the  saintly  Keble.  It  cannot  bfe 
said  that  his  meditations  bear  any  deep  trace  of 
their  influence.  The  man  who,  in  one  sense  at 
least,  impressed  him  most  was  Pascal.  At  all 
events  he  was  at  one  with  the  writer  of  the  famous 
Pens^es  in  believing  that  "devotion  to  be  kept  pure 
needs  ideas  as  well  as  feelings."  This  is  the  point 
that  he  touches  on  in  the  Prefaces  to  three  of  his 
devotional  volumes.  In  his  Times  of  Retirement 
he  refers  thus  to  the  subject : 

It  is  often  said  that  devotion  is  a  thing  of  the  heart. 
I  do  not  think  it  is  either  merely  or  mainly  so.  I  hold 
that  all  devotion  is  based  upon  intellectual  conviction. 
Even  your  sense  of  natural  beauty  is  so  based.  Whence 
comes  that  joy  with  which  you  gaze  on  a  bit  of  landscape 
you  call  a  "  picture-scene "  ?  Precisely  from  your  in- 
tellectual  conviction    that   it   is   not  a   picture;    if   you 


172         DEV^OTION   AND   POETRY 

believed  it  to  be  a  painting  your  emotion  would  die 
altogether.  A  man  may  hdMQ  faith  in  what  he  does  not 
understand,  but  he  cannot  have  emotion  in  what  he  does 
not  understand.  The  heart  must  have  a  theory  for  its 
own  music.  Therefore  the  devotional  writer  must  have 
a  message  as  much  as  the  expositor.  Devotion  must 
be  the  child  of  reflection ;  it  may  rise  on  wings,  but  they 
must  be  the  wings  of  thought.  The  meditations  of  this 
little  book  will  appeal  to  the  instinct  of  prayer  just  in 
proportion  as  they  appeal  to  the  teaching  of  experi- 
ence ;  therefore  before  all  things  I  have  endeavoured 
to  base  the  feeling  of  the  heart  on  the  conclusions  of  the 
mind. 

In  his  next  devotional  volume,  Leaves  for 
Quiet  Hours,  he  reverts  to  the  same  subject.  It 
would  seem  as  if  he  were  anxious  to  guard  his 
readers  against  the  two  dangers  to  which  devotion 
is  exposed.  '*  The  danger  of  becoming  formal  and 
uninterested,  a  sleepy  routine  ;  and  the  danger  of 
becoming  artificial,  fanciful,  petty,  of  wasting  Itself 
in  the  unchastened  flow  of  feelings  and  words ;  of 
sinking  into  effeminacies  and  subtleties  and  delicate 
affectations  of  sentiment  and  language."  So  he 
remarks  : 

Each  devotional  piece  consists  of  two  parts.  The 
first  is  a  suggestion  of  a  thought,  the  second  is  the  ex- 
pression of  a  feeling — either  in  the  form  of  a  prayer  or 
of  an  invocation.  But  I  hope  that  these  two  parts  will 
never  be  divided  in  holy  wedlock  —  that  every  fresh 
thought  will  be  tinged  with  the  heart's  emotion,  and 
that  every  emotion  of  the  heart  will  be  winged  by  the 
inspiration  of  a  thought.  A  devotional  book  is  believed 
to  be  a  very  simple  thing.  It  ought  to  be  the  most 
difficult  composition  in  the  world,  for  it  should  aim  at  the 
marriage  of  qualities  which  are  commonly  supposed  to  be 


DEVOTION   AND   POETRY         173 

antagonistic — the  insight  of  the  thinker  and  the  fervour 
of  the  worshipper.  My  own  conviction  has  increasingly 
been  that  the  hours  of  our  deepest  devotion  are  precisely 
in  those  moments  when  we  catch  fresh  glimpses  of 
hidden  things. 

In  the  last  Preface  v^hich  he  ever  wrote,  the  one 
to  Rests  by  the  River,  he  harps  upon  the  same 
thing.     He  says  these  meditations  are 

intended  for  devotional  moments,  but  by  devotional 
moments  I  do  not  mean  moments  of  vacuity.  It  is  not 
in  its  season  of  intellectual  barrenness  that  the  soul 
yields  its  spiritual  fruit.  Religious  sentiment  if  it  is 
worth  anything  must  be  preceded  by  religious  perception. 
Accordingly  I  have  divided  these  pieces  into  two  parts, 
— the  first  containing  a  thought  and  the  second  either  an 
invocation  or  a  prayer.  The  appeals  are  to  various 
moods  of  mind ;  if  some  of  them  should  find  their  way 
into  hearts  that  have  been  unconsciously  waiting  for 
their  message,  the  aim  of  this  book  will  have  been 
abundantly  achieved. 

In  an  interesting  interviev^,  v^hich  he  gave  about 
two  years  before  his  death,  he  discusses  at  length  the 
subject  of  devotional  literature.  ''  There  is  an  idea 
abroad,"  he  said, 

that  devotional  literature  is  altogether  on  a  wrong  basis. 
Well,  while  there  is  much  to  be  remedied,  I  must  say  that 
I  consider  that  is  going  rather  too  far.  I  think  that 
literature  of  this  kind  is,  as  a  rule,  characterised  by  great 
honesty  of  purpose  and  thought.  But  we  want  more  than 
that  nowadays.  It  appears  to  me  to  be  wanting  in 
originality  of  thought  and  treatment ;  indeed,  I  know 
certain  good  people  who  consider  that  the  less  originality 
it  possesses  the  more  it  is  adapted  for  devotional  purposes, 
but  my  view  is  the  very  opposite.  Devotion  requires 
stimulation,  exactly  as  it  does  any  other  human  attribute ; 


174        DEVOTION  AND  POETRY 

the  soul  must  be  taught  to  think  just  as  much  as  the  mind 
is  taught  to  think.  I  beHeve  that  our  moments  of  devo- 
tion are  just  those  when  we  have  great  ideas.  Well,  are 
those  ideas  not  to  be  fed  and  encouraged  ?  It  is  on  the 
wings  of  the  intellect  that  the  heart  rises.  Now  it  is  on 
that  basis  that  I  have  endeavoured  to  write  all  my 
devotional  books.  My  remedy  for  the  weakness  of  which 
we  have  been  speaking  would  be  to  write  books  of  a 
different  nature ;  to  write  Thomas  a  Kenipis  on  the  side, 
not  of  asceticism,  but  of  the  appropriateness  of  the  world. 
I  hold  the  deepest  self-surrender,  the  noblest  sacrifice  to 
God,  lies  mainly  in  going  into  the  world,  not  in  running 
away  from  it.  It  is  there  that  your  devotion  displays 
itself  at  its  highest  and  best. 

As  a  devotional  writer  Dr.  Matheson  has  many 
rare  characteristics.  One  cannot  take  up  the 
smallest  of  his  volumes  v^Ithout  being  struck  by  its 
wide  range  of  subjects.  He  sounded  the  heights 
and  depths,  the  lengths  and  breadths  of  man's 
spiritual  experience.  The  variety  of  his  themes 
secured  him  a  multitude  of  readers.  The  most 
Indifferent  cannot  turn  the  leaves  of  any  of  his 
books  of  devotion  v^Ithout  lighting  upon  one 
meditation,  at  least,  which  appeals  to  his  heart. 
His  moods,  too,  are  as  varied  as  his  themes.  A 
page  that  you  would  pass  by  to-day  will  rivet  your 
attention  to-morrow.  Another  striking  feature  Is 
his  catholicity.  It  would  be  impossible  to  tell  the 
Church  to  which  he  belonged,  or  the  school  of 
thought  which  he  favoured.  He  struck  a  note 
which  found  a  response  in  the  hearts  of  men  what- 
ever might  be  their  creed.  His  universality,  too,  is 
a  marked  quality.     He  appeals  to  the  few  and  to 


DEVOTION   AND    POETRY         175 

the  many,  to  the  inner  and  the  outer  circle  of 
discipleship,  to  the  learned  and  to  the  unlearned,  to 
the  king  and  to  the  peasant. 

His  devotional  writings  are  characterised  by 
certain  qualities  which  single  them  out  from  the 
general  mass  of  contemporary  literature  of  the 
same  class,  and  give  them  a  foremost  place  among 
all  the  books  of  devotion  which  have  been  the  off- 
spring of  Christian  thought  and  experience.  They 
are  marked  by  profound  thought.  Matheson  could 
not  write  a  line  unless  his  intellect  were  satisfied. 
He  was  not  one  of  those  who  believed  In  dividing 
human  nature  Into  so  many  compartments,  of  which 
mind  was  one  and  soul  another.  Man,  in  all  his 
complexity,  he  believed  to  be  of  a  piece ;  and  for 
him  to  have  written  what  some  mlg^ht  reo^ard  as 
religious,  because  It  was  void  of  thought,  was 
Impossible.  His  thought,  besides,  is  always  original. 
He  could  not  help  being  original,  and,  as  he 
remarks,  "devotion  requires  stimulation."  It  is 
perhaps  In  his  possession  of  this  quality,  more 
than  in  any  other,  that  his  excellence  chiefly 
consists.  Each  meditation  Is  based  on  a  text  of 
Scripture.  How  many  have  gazed  at  this  same 
text  without  ever  having  received  from  it  any 
inspiration  or  consolation.  In  Matheson's  hands 
It  shines  with  a  new  face,  speaks  with  a  divine 
voice,  and  utters  the  very  word  that  the  soul 
needed. 

Dr.  Matheson  is  not  a  writer  for  the  sickroom 
merely ;    he  steadily  keeps   In   view   those  whose 


176        DEVOTION   AND   POETRY 

duty  lies  in  the  "  dusty  lane  and  wrangling  mart." 
He  has  a  special  message  for  the  man  of  the  world. 
Religion  in  common  life  is  the  ideal  he  ever  kept 
before  him.  He  was  thus  a  practical  mystic,  and 
in  this  is  to  be  found  the  secret  of  his  success  and 
the  power  of  his  teaching.  The  last  of  the  qualities 
which  characterise  his  devotional  writings  is  his 
rare  gift  of  style.  There  is  a  charm  about  It,  a 
music  in  it,  which  appeals  at  once  to  the  artistic 
and  spiritual  senses.  The  beauty  of  form  may  be 
but  the  natural  expression  of  the  beauty  of  thought, 
but  It  is  the  crown,  and  would  of  itself  give  his 
meditations  a  high  place  in  devotional  literature. 
Let  me  select  two  examples,  one  from  his  earliest 
and  another  from  his  all  but  latest  book  of  devo- 
tions, in  which  these  qualities  are  illustrated.  In 
My  Aspirations  there  is  a  meditation  on  "  Christian 
Liberty."  It  is  suggested  by  the  text  John  x.  9  : 
"•  I  am  the  door :  by  Me  if  any  man  enter  in,  he 
shall  be  saved,  and  shall  go  in  and  out,  and  find 
pasture." 

To  go  in  and  out  of  a  house  at  will  is  the  mark  of 
perfect  liberty.  It  is  the  mark,  not  of  a  servant  nor  even 
of  a  guest,  but  of  a  son ;  he  who  at  will  goes  out  and  in  is 
conscious  that  he  is  a  member  of  the  family.  Our  Lord 
says  that  the  saved  man  is  the  free  man — the  man  who 
goes  in  and  out  at  the  door.  I  had  always  thought  it  to 
be  the  contrary.  I  had  come  to  persuade  myself  that  to 
be  saved  was  to  be  narrow,  to  be  curtailed  in  the  path  of 
freedom.  I  never  doubted  that  the  saved  man  went  in  at 
the  door ;  it  seemed  to  me  that  to  be  in  the  temple  of  God 
was  to  be  about  his  Father's  business.  But  that  this  man 
of  all  men  should  have  a  right  to  come  out  again  at  the 


DEVOTION   AND   POETRY         177 

same  door  by  which  he  entered  ;  should  have  a  right  to  go 
back  into  the  pursuits  of  that  world  from  which  he  came ; 
this  was  a  thought  which  it  did  not  enter  into  my  heart  to 
conceive.     Yet   this,  and    nothing   less  than    this,  is  the 
teaching  of  our  Lord.     He  says  that  the  saved  man  had 
alone  the  right  to  be  called  the  man  of  the  world,  alone 
the  right  to  come  out  into  the  secular  pleasures  of  men. 
He  says  that  such  a  man  will  not  only  get  no  harm  from 
the  world  ;  he  will  get  positive  good  from  it,  "  he  will  find 
pasture."     He  will  get  from  the  things  around  him  what 
he  has  brought  to  those  things— a  pure  heart.     He  will 
see  God  in  everything,  because  he  has  seen  Him  in  his 
own  soul.     He  will  find  good  in  everything,  because  he 
himself  is  good.     He  will  recognise  in  the  world  green 
pastures  where  the  world  itself  recognises  only  a  desert. 
He  will  hear   the   song   of  birds  where  the  natural   ear 
catches  only  the  silence  of  the  wilderness  ;  he  will  behold 
the  myrtle  where  the  eye  of  sense  gazes  only  on  the  briar. 
My  soul,  art  thou  afraid  of  the  Son  of  Man  ?     Art 
thou  afraid  to  enter  in  at  the  heavenly  door  ?     Art  thou 
afraid  that  in   becoming  a  Christian  thoushalt  lose  thy 
power  to  act  as  a  citizen  ?     Thou  s halt  for  the  first  time 
gain  that  power  !     Christ  shall  intensify  thy  natural  gifts; 
the  rest  He  gives  is  the  ability  to  do  better  that  earthly 
work  which  has  been  given  thee  to  do.     Dost  thou  fear 
that  the  pleasures  of  God's  right  hand  will  blunt  thee  to 
the  joys  of  human  affection?     They  will  quicken  them. 
God's  love  helps  all  other  love  as  surely  as  the  vision  of 
the  sun  helps  all  other  vision.     God's  love  is  something  to 
love  with,  just  as  the  sun's  light  is  something  to  see  with; 
it  teaches  the  loveless  how  to  love.     He  who  has  been  in 
at  the  Door  is  distinguished  not  only  among  angels  but 
amongst  men.     He  is  marked  out  by  the  intensity  of  his 
human  nature.     Thou  shalt  know  him  from  other  men  by 
his  superior  zeal  in   all  earthly  causes.     He  shall    hope 
more  for  the  world,  he  shall  work  more  for  the  world,  he 
shall  suffer  more  for  the  world  ;  for  it  is  in  the  world  that 
he  seeks  for  the  pasture  which  has  been  provided  by  the 
Shepherd-King.    He  that  enters  by  this  Door  goes  in  and 
out  at  will ! 

12 


178        DEVOTION   AND   POETRY 

The  second   example  is  from  his   Leaves  for 

Quiet  Hours.     It  is  on  *'  In  the  Light  of  Eternity." 

There  is  a  personal  note  in  it  which  is  not  without 

its  pathos  ;    it  is  at  the  same  time  a  triumphant 

note.     This  son  of  affliction  has  a  word  of  cheer, 

not  only  for  the  man  of  the  world,  but  also  for  the 

child  of  sorrow.     The  meditation  is  suggested  by 

two  passages,  the  one  from  Psalm  xxxvi.  9  :  *'  In 

thy  light  shall  we  see  light " ;  and  the  other  from 

Revelation    xxi.    23:    '*The    Lamb    is    the   light 

thereof." 

Nothing  is  seen  in  its  own  light — not  even  a  visible 
thing.  A  landscape  is  not  seen  in  its  own  light ;  it  is 
perceived  very  much  in  the  light  of  yesterday.  How 
little  of  what  you  see  is  mere  perception  I  Every  sight  of 
nature  is  tinged  with  the  light  of  memory.  The  poet 
looks  from  the  bridge  at  midnight  upon  the  rushing 
waters ;  but  what  he  sees  is  not  the  flowing  tide,  it  is  a 
tide  of  memory  which  fills  his  eyes  with  tears.  You  listen 
to  the  babbling  of  the  brook ;  but  what  you  hear  is  not 
the  babbling,  it  is  the  utterance  of  a  dear  name.  You 
visit  Rome,  you  visit  Jerusalem,  you  visit  Greece  ;  do  you 
see  any  of  these  by  its  own  light?  No;  they  are  all 
beheld  by  the  light  of  yesterday;  there  is  their  glory, 
there  lies  their  gold  !  "  Even  so,"  cries  the  Psalmist,  "  it 
is  with  this  world  ;  if  you  want  to  see  it,  you  must  look 
at  it  by  the  light  of  another  world — God's  coming  world. 
He  does  not  mean  that  when  we  quit  the  scenes  of  earth 
we  shall  have  a  bright  light  in  heaven.  It  is  more  than 
that.  It  is  for  the  scenes  of  earth  he  wants  the  heavenly 
light.  He  says  you  cannot  interpret  your  own  skies 
without  it.  We  often  say  that  in  the  light  of  eternity 
earthly  objects  will  fade  from  our  sight.  But  the  Psalmist 
says  that  until  we  get  the  light  of  eternity  earthly  objects 
will  not  be  in  our  sight.  It  is  by  the  light  of  the  Celestial 
City — the  City  which  has  no  need  of  the  sun — that  alone 
we  can  tell  what  here  is  large  and  what  here  is  small. 


DEVOTION   AND   POETRY         179 

Thou  Lamb,  slain  from  the  foundation  of  the  world, 
Thou  art  the  Light  thereof!  When  God  said,  "Let  us 
make  man  ! "  He  meant  not  Adam,  but  Thee.  Thou  art 
the  plan  of  the  great  building ;  to  Thee  all  things  move. 
By  no  other  light  can  I  understand  the  struggles  of  this 
earth.  Not  by  nature's  light  can  I  understand  them ;  I 
have  seen  the  physical  sunshine  sparkle  on  my  pain,  and 
I  thought  it  a  cruel  thing.  Not  by  philosophy's  light  can 
I  understand  them  ;  I  have  seen  the  great  thinker  impeded 
by  poverty  and  I  thought  it  an  unseemly  thing.  Not  in 
beauty's  light  can  I  understand  them ;  I  have  seen  the 
artist  lose  his  eyesight  and  I  thought  it  an  unrighteous 
thing.  But  if  the  world  is  being  woven  for  Thee,  I  under- 
stand. If  Thy  type  of  sacrifice  is  the  plan  of  the  Architect, 
I  understand.  If  Thy  cross  is  Creation's  crown,  I  under- 
stand. If  the  Celestial  City  is  a  home  for  hospital  training, 
I  understand.  If  Thine  angels  are  all  ministering  spirits, 
I  understand.  If  the  purest  robe  is  not  the  white  robe 
but  the  robe  washed  white,  if  the  goal  of  man  is  not  Eden 
but  Gethsemane,  if  the  glory  of  Thy  Father  is  the  sacri- 
ficial blood  of  love,  then  have  I  found  the  golden  key,  in 
Thy  Light  I  have  seen  Light ! 

As  might  be  expected.  Dr.  Matheson  received 
from  almost  every  part  of  the  v^orld  letters  of 
the  deepest  gratitude  for  the  comfort  v^hich  his 
meditations  afforded  to  weary  and  despondent 
souls.  It  may  be  sufficient  to  give  one  letter  as 
an  example  of  the  many  that  he  received  ex- 
pressing the  gratitude  of  those  who  found  in  his 
books  the  consolation  that  their  souls  needed.  The 
letter  is  from  a  clergyman  in  Belfast,  and  is  dated 
14th  October  1904  : 

I  have  just  got  your  Leaves  for  Quiet  Hours.  I  feel 
that  I  ought  to  put  on  paper  what  has  been  in  my  mind  and 
heart  since  I  first  began  to  read  your  helpful  messages. 

Ten  years  ago,  when  a  probationary  minister  in  our 


180        DEVOTION  AND  POETRY 

Nottingham  circuit,  I  visited  a  poor  woman,  who  for 
thirteen  years  had  been  afflicted  with  a  lingering  form 
of  cancer  which  had  affected  her  head.  Night  and  day- 
she  was  in  pain.  She  told  me  she  could  not  remember 
much  nor  think  out  anything,  but  said  she,  "  I  have  a 
little  book  and  it  does  help  me."  It  was  a  well-worn 
copy  of  My  Aspirations.  "Which  was  the  one  she 
liked  best,"  I  asked  ?  "  Ah  !  "  said  she,  and  I  shall  never 
forget  her  bright  look,  although  her  head  was  as  though 
there  were  coals  of  fire  upon  it,  "  And  God  saw  everything 
that  He  had  made,  and  behold  it  was  very  good."  In 
fragments  she  almost  gave  me  the  whole  of  it.  Said 
she,  "  My  Sabbath  is  coming ;  it  seems  as  though  some- 
times I  hear  the  morning  bells."  I  remember,  not  long 
before  she  passed  away,  I  called  late  one  night,  and  I 
found  her  suffering  acutely.  Her  devoted  daughter  had 
dressed  her  terrible  wounds — a  task  from  which  the 
trained  visiting  nurses  would  turn  away,  almost  over- 
powered. I  noticed  the  laudanum  bottle  almost  empty, 
and  then  it  flashed  upon  me,  in  spite  of  their  comfortable 
home,  they  were  feeling  the  pinch  of  poverty.  The 
daughter,  with  tears  in  her  eyes,  told  me  that  laudanum 
cost  so  much.  When  someone  went  out  to  get  what 
alone  could  allay  the  burning  pain,  I  saw  in  the  hand 
of  the  sufferer,  as  she  lay  apparently  asleep,  the  little 
book,  My  Aspirations.  She  once  said  the  doctor  wondered 
how  she  could  bear  the  burning  of  her  wound  with  so 
little  outward  relief,  but,  added  the  frail  woman,  "  I 
know."  I  have  often  wished  to  tell  you  what  service 
your  book  was  to  that  poor  afflicted  woman.  It  was 
through  her  I  was  introduced  to  your  unspoken  ministry, 
and  I  venture  to  take  this  opportunity  of  respectfully 
expressing  my  great  indebtedness  to  you  for  your  inspiring 
and  sustaining  writings. 

I  have  sometimes  thought  that  if  a  few  of  your  valued 
meditations  were  printed  on  little  slips,  or  cards,  with 
a  view  to  their  circulation  in  hospitals  and  amongst  the 
sick  at  home,  I  believe  your  messages  would  be  words 
in  season  for  the  weary  and  more  than  welcome  to  the 
afflicted.     I  have  put  My  Aspirations  in  more  than  one 


DEVOTION  AND   POETRY        181 

chamber  of  sorrow.  It  has  brought  heaven  a  little 
nearer  and  their  lives  have  been  blessed,  while  others 
have  been  helped  to  quietly  wait  until  they  entered 
into  rest. 

The  year  that  sav^  the  publication  of  his  first 
volume  of  Meditations  also  witnessed  the  com- 
position of  his  famous  hymn,  '*  O  Love  that  wilt 
not  let  me  go."  The  circumstances  under  which 
it  was  written  are  well-known.  He  himself  has 
furnished  the  following  interesting  account  of  Its 
genesis  :  "  My  hymn  was  composed  in  the  manse 
of  Innellan  on  the  evening  of  6th  June  1882.  I 
was  at  that  time  alone.  It  was  the  day  of  my 
sister's  marriage,  and  the  rest  of  the  family  were 
staying  over  night  In  Glasgow.  Something  had 
happened  to  me,  which  was  known  only  to  myself, 
and  which  caused  me  the  most  severe  mental 
suffering.  The  hymn  was  the  fruit  of  that  suffering. 
It  was  the  quickest  bit  of  work  I  ever  did  In  my 
life.  I  had  the  Impression  rather  of  having  it 
dictated  to  me  by  some  Inward  voice  than  of 
working  it  out  myself.  I  am  quite  sure  that  the 
whole  work  was  completed  in  five  minutes,  and 
equally  sure  that  it  never  received  at  my  hands 
any  retouching  or  correction.  The  Hymnal  Com- 
mittee of  the  Church  of  Scotland  desired  the  change 
of  one  word.  I  had  written  originally  *  I  climbed 
the  rainbow  in  the  rain.'  They  objected  to  the 
word  'climb'  and  I  put  'trace.'" 

Matheson  at  the  time  at  which  this  hymn  was 
written  was  no  novice  in  the  art  of  poetical  com- 


182        DEVOTION  AND  POETRY 

position.  This  form  of  literary  expression  was, 
as  we  have  seen,  the  earliest  practised  by  him. 
He  wrote,  when  quite  a  youth,  long  poems,  but, 
apart  from  the  two  referred  to  in  a  previous  chapter, 
nearly  all  his  writings  in  this  form  were  on  sacred 
subjects.  He  had  the  lyrical  note  strongly 
developed  in  his  nature.  Much  of  his  writing, 
particularly  his  meditations,  was  couched  in  a 
poetic  strain  ;  he  delighted  in  song  and  music,  and 
his  soul  demanded  at  times  to  utter  itself  in  verse. 
There  still  remains  a  very  considerable  collection 
of  unpublished  poems  by  him,  all  in  the  strain  with 
which  readers  of  his  Sacred  Songs  are  familiar. 
They  were  written  at  different  periods,  and  were 
collected  at  intervals  into  forms  that  suggest  the 
intention  of  publication,  but  he  delayed  this  purpose 
until  1889,  when,  after  a  final  revision,  he  gave  a 
selection  of  them  to  the  world. 

In  a  scrap-book,  carefully  preserved,  it  is 
interesting  to  find  a  number  of  sacred  songs  by 
him,  cut  out  from  some  magazine  or  periodical  in 
which  they  first  appeared.  They  are  framed  in 
coloured  flowers,  and  evidently  show  the  tender 
guardianship  of  his  sister's  hand.  There  is  no 
guide  as  to  the  journals  in  which  they  were 
published,  but  so  early  as  1875  one  of  his  best- 
known  hymns,  ''  My  voice  shalt  Thou  hear  in  the 
morning,"  appeared  in  the  Sunday  Magazine. 
This  he  thought  worthy  of  reproduction  in  his 
volume  of  Sacred  Songs.  Again,  in  1878,  under 
the  heading  of  "  God  with  us,"  there  appeared  in 


DEVOTION   AND   POIJTRY        183 

the  same  magazine  the  hymn  which  he  afterwards 
published  under  the  title  of  "Jacob  at  Bethel." 
Two  more  hymns,  "  Strength  for  the  Day  "  and 
''Jesus,  Fountain  of  my  Days,"  also  found  a  place 
in  the  Sunday  Magazi7ie  ;  the  former  with  the 
heading,  ''  Times  of  Need,"  in  1881  ;  and  the  latter 
with  the  title,  "Above  every  Name,"  in  1884. 
Other  poems  by  him  were  sent,  as  the  occasion 
arose,  to  various  magazines,  which  gave  them  a 
ready  welcome. 

Matheson  never  took  himself  very  seriously  as 
a  hymn-writer,  but  the  public  has  largely  reversed 
his  judgment,  for  his  volume  of  Sacred  Songs 
ran  within  a  few  years  into  a  third  edition.  In  his 
Preface  to  the  issue  which  appeared  in  1904,  he 
says  :  "  I  was  originally  much  exercised  as  to  what 
title  I  ought  to  give  these  verses  collectively. 
The  difficulty  arose  from  the  desire  to  avoid  pre- 
tentiousness, by  seeming  to  claim  for  them  more 
than  they  aspired  to  be.  I  decided  that,  in  point 
of  form,  their  distinctive  feature  was  a  varied 
rhythmicalness,  and  therefore  I  called  them  Sacred 
Songs.  The  subject-matter  was  suggested  by 
Scriptural  texts,  but  there  was  no  attempt  to  classify 
or  systematise  :  I  simply  followed  the  impression 
of  the  moment  and  endeavoured  to  express  the 
sentiment  in  its  appropriate  cadence.  These  pieces 
were  never  intended  as  a  volume  of  hymns ;  but, 
contrary  to  my  expectations,  many  of  them  have 
been  so  adapted." 

It  is  but  right  in  estimating  Matheson's  poetic 


184         DEVOTION   AND   POETRY 

effusions  to  keep  what  he  thus  says  clearly  in  mind. 
There  are  few  kinds  of  composition  about  which 
there  has  been  so  much  controversy  as  hymns. 
The  lines  on  which  lyric,  epic,  and  dramatic  poetry 
are  composed  are  well  marked,  and  generally  recog- 
nised and  followed  ;  but  some  of  the  most  popular 
hymns,  according  to  experts,  violate  every  canon, 
and  captivate  the  heart  in  spite  of  their  rebellion 
ao^ainst  the  law^s  which  ousfht  to  sfovern  them. 
Matheson  accordingly  was  perfectly  justified  in 
guarding  himself  against  the  criticism  that  might 
be  brought  to  bear  upon  his  productions  in  verse. 
He  declared  that  they  were  Sacred  Songs,  and  not 
Hymns.  Looking  at  them  in  this  light,  one  is 
impressed,  not  only  by  their  variety  of  rhythmical- 
ness,  but  also  of  theme.  Like  his  Meditations,  they 
touch  religious  thought  and  experience  at  almost 
every  point,  and  open  windows  of  feeling  and 
emotion  through  which  divine  light  and  comfort 
pour  in.  The  themes  may  be  varied,  but  they 
have  one  subject :  the  Divine  Love.  *'  And  now 
abideth  Faith,  Hope,  Charity,  these  three,  but 
the  greatest  of  these  is  Charity,"  might  be  taken 
as  their  motto ;  and  right  through  them  there 
breathes  that  spirit  of  Christian  optimism  which 
characterised  his  preaching,  his  writing,  and  his 
life.  The  darkest  day  does  not  dismay  him  ;  the 
sorest  disappointment  does  not  crush  him ;  the 
bitterest  anguish  or  the  cruellest  pain  does  not 
daunt  him ;  the  waves  and  the  billows  of  life 
may   pass   over    his    soul    without    quenching    its 


DEVOTION   AND   POETRY         185 

ardour  or  drowning  its  hope.  The  Divine  Love 
he  sees  in  all ;  the  Cross  of  Christ  assures  him 
of  victory. 

Matheson  had  very  clear  notions  of  what  a 
hymn  should  be.  At  all  events,  he  subjected  to 
sharp  criticism  modern  hymnology  in  one  respect  at 
least,  its  lack  of  human  sentiment.  Being  asked 
on  one  occasion  what  he  thought  of  our  hymns 
generally,  he  shook  his  head  strongly  as  he  replied  : 

To  my  mind  they  have  one  great  defect ;  they  lack 
humanitarianism.  There  is  any  amount  of  doctrine  in 
the  Trinity,  Baptism,  Atonement,  or  the  Christian  Hfe 
as  such,  but  what  of  the  secular  life — the  infirmary,  the 
hospital,  the  home  of  refuge?  When  I  was  asked  to 
preach  a  charity  sermon  some  time  ago,  I  searched 
through  the  hymnal  in  vain  for  any  hymn  that  would 
suit  my  subject,  but  there  was  no  incentive  to  charity 
as  such.  I  don't  think  our  hymns  will  ever  be  what 
they  ought  to  be,  until  we  get  them  inspired  by  a  sense 
of  the  enthusiasm  of,  and  for,  humanity.  It  is  rather  a 
theological  point,  perhaps,  but  the  hymnists  speak  of  the 
surrender  to  Christ.  They  forget  that  Christ  is  not 
simply  an  individual.  He  is  Head  of  a  body,  the  body 
of  humanity ;  and  it  no  longer  expresses  the  idea 
correctly  to  join  yourself  to  Christ  only,  you  must  give 
yourself  to  the  whole  brotherhood  of  man  to  fulfil  the 
idea.  I  like  "  Lead,  kindly  Light " ;  it  is  universal, 
though  not  practical,  perhaps ;  it  is  vague,  and  applies 
to  any  religion.  Another  good  hymn  is  "  Trust  in  God 
and  do  the  Right,"  written  by  Dr.  Norman  Macleod,  a 
good  and  practical  hymn.  "  We  give  Thee  but  Thine 
Own  "  sounds  the  real  humanitarian  note  to  the  father- 
less and  widows.  Hymnology  is  feeble  and  ineffective 
when  it  ignores  the  humanitarian  side  of  religion. 

There  is  a  strong  note  of  modernity  in  this 
criticism.     Matheson  lived  in  the  age  of  practical 


186         DEVOTION   AND   POETRY 

Christianity,  and  he  appreciated  its  significance 
to  the  full.  It  may  be  true  that  he  was  a  mystic. 
He  was  constantly  brooding  upon  divine  things ; 
his  spirit  was  frequently  in  other  lands  than  this. 
He  was  convinced  that  the  ideal  is  the  real,  and 
that  the  life  which  is  perceptible  to  the  eye  of 
faith  encircled  all  life,  that  it  was  the  beginning 
and  the  end,  the  Alpha  and  the  Omega,  of  human 
experience.  Such  a  belief,  however,  did  not  trans- 
form him  into  a  mere  dreamer  of  dreams.  He  felt 
it  to  be  his  vocation  to  interpret  man's  varied 
life  in  the  light  of  the  divine,  and  to  see  the  law 
which  is  behind  all  facts  revealing  itself  in  human 
vicissitudes.  It  was  this  that  made  his  preaching 
so  inspiring  to  the  vast  majority  of  his  hearers, 
and  caused  his  Meditations  to  be  welcomed,  as 
glad  tidings,  all  over  the  world.  It  is  this  also 
which  will  preserve  his  Sacred  Songs  from 
falling  readily  into  oblivion ;  they  will  continue 
to  have  a  message  for  the  day  and  the  hour ; 
their  humanitarian  note  will  preserve  them  from 
growing  out  of  date,  as  writings  which  have  no 
relation  to  man's  troubles,  man's  needs,  and  man's 
aspirations. 

The  criticisms  on  his  volume,  Sacred  Songs, 
refer  with  a  unanimity  which  must  have  good 
ground,  in  fact,  to  a  feature  which  is  common 
indeed  to  nearly  the  whole  of  Matheson's  writings. 
They  emphasise  the  note  of  catholicity  that 
pervades  the  book.  But  Matheson's  catholicity 
did    not    arise   from    indifference.       He    did    not 


DEVOTION  AND   POETRY         187 

simply  assume  a  theological  standpoint  of  his 
own  and  quietly  ignore  all  others.  It  was  his 
aim  to  stand  on  a  platform  so  broad  that  he 
could  find  room  on  it  for  every  one,  whether 
Pagan  or  Christian,  who  was  struggling  towards 
the  light.  In  such  a  position  is  to  be  found 
the  true  spirit  of  reconciliation,  which  sees  the 
unifying  element  in  each,  seizes  it  and  links  all 
together  in  a  bond  which  they  interpret,  and 
which  at  the  same  time  interprets  them.  They 
find  their  meaning  in  it,  and  it  finds  its  meaning 
in  them.  Such  a  method  does  not  lop  off  what 
may  seem  incongruous,  or  irreconcilable,  in  the 
different  forms  of  faith  which  it  unifies.  If  it  did, 
it  would  be  a  destructive,  and  not  a  constructive, 
method.  It,  on  the  contrary,  gathers  them  together 
as  they  are  ;  and  the  central  truth  of  each,  being  at 
bottom  an  eternal  truth,  linked  to  Him  who  is  the 
Truth,  of  its  own  accord  sheds  what  is  defective, 
and  receives  new  strengrth  and  life  from  Him  to 
whom  it  is  joined.  In  a  poem  of  sterling  excellence 
Matheson  clothes  his  teaching  on  this  subject  in  a 
form  which  is  certain  to  live.  He  entitles  it  ''One 
in  Christ,"  and  bases  it  on  Ephesians  i.  lo :  ''That 
in  the  dispensation  of  the  fulness  of  times  He  might 
gather  together  in  one  all  things  in  Christ." 

I   Gather  us  in.  Thou  Love  that  fillest  all  ! 
Gather  our  rival  faiths  within  Thy  fold ! 
Rend  each  man's  temple  veil  and  bid  it  fall. 

That  we  may  know  that  Thou  hast  been  of  old ; 
Gather  us  in ! 


188        DEVOTION   AND   POETRY 

2  Gather  us  in  !  we  worship  only  Thee ; 

In  varied  names  we  stretch  a  common  hand ; 
In  diverse  forms  a  common  soul  we  see ; 
In  many  ships  we  seek  one  spirit-land ; 
Gather  us  in  ! 

3  Each  sees  one  colour  of  Thy  rainbow  light, 

Each  looks  upon  one  tint  and  calls  it  heaven ; 
Thou  art  the  fulness  of  our  partial  sight ; 
We  are  not  perfect  till  we  find  the  seven ; 
Gather  us  in  ! 

4  Thine  is  the  mystic  light  great  India  craves, 

Thine  is  the  Parsee's  sin-destroying  beam, 
Thine  is  the  Buddhist's  rest  from  tossing  waves. 
Thine  is  the  empire  of  vast  China's  dream  ; 
Gather  us  in ! 

5  Thine  is  the  Roman's  strength  without  his  pride, 

Thine  is  the  Greek's  glad  world  without  its  graves. 
Thine  is  Judea's  law  with  love  beside. 

The  truth  that  centres  and  the  grace  that  saves ; 
Gather  us  in ! 

6  Some  seek  a  Father  in  the  heavens  above. 

Some  ask  a  human  image  to  adore, 
Some  crave  a  spirit  vast  as  life  and  love : 

Within  Thy  mansions  we  have  all  and  more ; 
Gather  us  in  ! 

In  the  third  edition  of  his  Sacred  Songs  he 
included  his  hymn  ''  O  Love  that  wilt  not  let  me 
go,"  which  first  appeared  in  Life  and  Work. 
Whatever  may  be  the  future  of  his  other  writings, 
this  hymn,  we  may  confidently  hope,  will  be  sung 
by  congregations  of  the  Christian  Church  so  long 
as  the  Cross  and  the  Divine  love  of  which  it  is 
the  symbol  will  continue  to  lift   up   the   head   of 


DEVOTION    AND   POETRY         189 

fallen  humanity.  He  himself  always  regarded 
this  hymn  as  his  piece  de  re'sistance.  He  in  a 
way  took  no  credit  for  it ;  it  was  given  to  him 
in  a  moment  of  divine  afflatus,  and  he  simply 
transcribed  what  was  communicated.  This  is  the 
orthodox  view  of  inspiration,  and  so  far  it  may  be 
sound  enough  ;  but  it  should  not  be  forgotten  that 
poets  are  cradled  into  poetry  by  wrong,  and  learn 
in  suffering  what  they  teach  in  song.  In  other 
words,  like  the  prophets  of  old  their  moments  of 
inspiration  are  preceded  by  years  of  earnest 
thought  and  spiritual  communion.  The  subjects 
on  which  they  have  long  brooded  may,  in  the 
twinkling  of  an  eye,  and  without  conscious  effort 
on  their  part,  be  seen  in  a  new  light ;  the  mystery 
is  unveiled  by  an  unseen  hand,  and  the  soul  gazes 
upon  the  land  delectable.  One  should  not,  accord- 
ingly, be  surprised  to  find  critics  of  this  hymn 
pointing  to  the  fact  that  Matheson  had  in  previous 
publications  expressed  its  thoughts  almost  in 
similar  words.  They  quote  passages  from  his 
Meditations  in  which  the  very  phrases  of  the  hymn 
are  anticipated.  But  I  can  do  more  :  there  is  in 
manuscript  a  poem  by  him  on  the  rainbow,  of 
which  the  first  line  is  "  Jesus,  Rainbow  of  my 
Sorrow."  Here  we  have  a  forecast  of  the  line  so 
much  admired,  **  I  trace  the  rainbow  through  the 
rain."  Indeed,  such  anticipations,  in  place  of 
detracting  from  ought  to  enhance  the  value  of  this 
hymn,  for  in  it  we  see  the  fugitive,  the  scattered 
experiences,  the  chance  phrases  of  the  poet  gathered 


190        DEVOTION   AND   POETRY 

together,  and  under  the  pressure  of  a  deep 
spiritual  experience  fused  by  his  genius  into  a 
perfect  whole. 

Dr.  Matheson  always  modestly  insisted  that 
his  hymn  was  greatly  indebted  to  the  music  written 
for  it  by  Dr.  Peace;  indeed,  there  may  be  some 
excuse  for  those  who  declare  that,  but  for  Dr. 
Peace's  tune,  it  would  not  have  attained  its  great 
popularity.  When  somebody  once  complimented 
Cardinal  Newman  on  the  great  vogue  of  his  ''  Lead, 
kindly  Light,"  he  replied,  ''  Ah,  yes ;  but,  you  see, 
the  tune  is  by  Dr.  Dykes."  What  ''  Lux  Benigna" 
did  for  Newman's  hymn,  ''St.  Margaret"  did  for 
Dr.  Matheson's.  The  latter  tune  was  composed 
with  as  little  deliberation  as  Dr.  Matheson  wrote 
the  hymn.  As  musical  editor  of  the  Scottish 
Hymnal,  which  at  the  time  was  passing  through 
the  hands  of  the  Committee  of  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land, Dr.  Peace  was  in  the  habit  of  always  carry- 
ing in  his  pocket  a  copy  of  the  words  for  careful 
study.  Sitting  one  day  on  the  sands  at  Arran,  he 
was  reading  "  O  Love  that  wilt  not  let  me  go  "  when 
the  tune  came  upon  him  like  a  flash,  and,  taking 
out  his  pencil,  he  dashed  it  off  in  a  few  minutes. 

Dr.  Matheson  was  in  the  habit  of  receiving 
constant  communications  regarding  his  hymn. 
The  most  frequent  of  these  was  asking  his  liberty 
to  use  it  for  one  church  or  congregational  book  of 
praise  or  another.  But  he  also  received  letters 
from  different  parts  of  the  country,  and  indeed  of 
the  world,  expressing  the  gratitude  of  some  soul 


DEVOTION  AND   POETRY        191 

to  whom  its  teaching  and  its  music  had  proved  a 

source  of  unfading  comfort.     Of  such  a  character 

is  the  following^ : — 

°  Oakfield,   Glaslyn   Road, 

Crouch  End,  London,  N. 

February  26,  1904. 

My  Dear  Sir, — You  have  before  very  kindly  permitted 
me  to  use  some  of  your  hymns  and  poems,  and  I  am 
again  coming  to  you  as  a  beggar.  It  happens  that  I 
have  just  completed  a  new  Hymnal  for  Boys,  to  be  used 
in  Public  Schools,  Boys'  Brigades,  Clubs,  etc.,  and  Young 
Men's  Meetings.  I  have  also  just  completed  arrangements 
for  a  revised  edition  of  the  Christian  Endeavour  Hymnal^ 
and  in  both  of  these  books  desire  to  include  "  O  Love  that 
wilt  not  let  me  go."  I  trust  that  you  will  be  able  to 
accord  me  the  desired  permission,  and  presume  that  for 
the  tune  I  must  apply  to  Dr.  Peace. 

It  will  interest  you  if  I  refer  to  an  incident  that  has 
touched  me  greatly  within  the  last  few  days.  In  the 
church  where  I  was  pastor  in  Southampton  there  was  a 
young  girl,  a  very  beautiful  character,  the  daughter  of  an 
artist.  She  was  stricken  with  a  terrible  illness,  and 
suffered  intensely,  but  recovered  in  a  wonderful  manner, 
remaining  apparently  well  for  a  year.  Then,  suddenly, 
the  old  disease  reasserted  itself,  and  she  again  passed 
through  a  fiery  furnace  of  pain.  The  fires  were  those  of 
purifying,  for  a  wonderful  change  was  wrought  in  her 
character  and  in  her  very  face.  Your  hymn  was  learnt 
in  our  choir,  of  which  she  was  a  member,  and  from  the 
first  it  became  a  ministrant  influence  in  her  life,  and 
became  for  her  the  expression  of  deepest  desire.  She 
was  a  girl  exceptionally  gifted,  and  clung  to  the  very 
last  to  the  hope  that  she  might  continue  her  studies  ;  and 
when  the  doctor  told  her  that  she  must  give  these  up, 
after  a  long  struggle  she  found  the  haven  of  trust  and 
rest  through  the  hymn,  and  relinquished  her  ambition, 
resting  in  the  Divine  love.  When  the  end  came,  and 
when  her  own  voice  had  gone,  the  mother  saw  that  she 
wished  to  speak — and,  bending  over  her,  heard  her  whisper, 
"  Mother,  sing  me  *  O  Love  that  wilt  not  let  me  go '" ;  and 


192        DEVOTION  AND   POETRY 

the  music  of  this  song  ushered  her  into  the  presence  of 
the  Father.  She  was  laid  to  rest  a  few  days  ago,  and 
her  comrades  of  the  choir  gathered  round  the  grave  and 
again  sung  the  hymn. 

How  great  a  privilege  and  joy  are  yours  in  this 
marvellous  ministry  ? — Believe  me,  most  truly  yours, 

Carey  Bonner. 

The  world-wide  reputation  of  the  hymn  receives 
emphatic  proof  from  the  following  communication. 
It  relates  to  the  Sunday-School  Convention  held 
at  Jerusalem  in  the  spring  of  1904,  when  the 
representatives  of  fifty  -  five  different  Christian 
communions,  gathered  from  twenty-six  different 
nations  of  the  world,  united  together  to  the  number 
of  1800  in  singing  Matheson's  famous  hymn  on  the 

brows  of  Calvary  : 

Glasgow, 
Sunday  Evenings  February  18,  1906. 

Dear  Dr.  Matheson, — I  have  just  been  reading  in 
the  last  issue  of  Saint  Andrew  an  interesting  paper  on  your 
noble  hymn  "  O  Love  that  wilt  not  let  me  go."  It 
brought  back  to  memory  an  incident  connected  with  your 
hymn,  of  which  I  wish  to  tell  you. 

I  was  one  of  the  pilgrim  band  in  the  Fourth  World's 
S.S.  Convention  which  assembled  in  Jerusalem  in  the 
spring-time  of  1904.  It  was  possibly  the  most  cosmo- 
politan assembly  that  ever  met  in  the  name  of  Christ. 
Convened  in  the  interests  of  the  Sabbath-school  cause,  it 
seemed  to  realise  a  strange  fulfilment  of  the  promise, 
"  A  little  child  shall  lead  them."  Representatives  from 
the  ends  of  the  earth  were  present.  It  would  be  difficult  to 
name  a  country  that  was  not  represented.  Fifty-five  different 
sects  or  faiths  were  there,  gathered  from  twenty-six  different 
nations.  Our  meeting-place  was  a  huge  tent  seated  for 
1800,  pitched  on  Calvary — close  by  Gordon's  Calvary. 
On  the  Sunday  morning  of  our  mission  the  vast  tent 
was  crowded  with  worshippers.     Archdeacon  Sinclair,  of 


DEVOTION  AND   POETRY        193 

London,  preached  a  noble  sermon  from  Matthew  xxi.  15,16. 

The  closing  hymn  was  your  own  noble  song,  "  O  Love " 

I  have  joined  in  the  singing  of  it  times  without  number, 
but  never  did  I  hear  it  sung  with  such  fervour.  In  that 
strange  assembly  of  divers  nations  nearly  all  seemed  to 
know  it  and  to  love  it,  and  a  mighty  flood  of  melody 
swept  through  the  vast  tent,  as  if  all  hearts  knew  only 
one  common  brotherhood  in  Christ.  I  was  so  deeply 
moved  that  ere  the  last  verse  came  round  I  could  only 
read  in  a  convulsive  sob. 

Two  thoughts  gave  birth  to  this  emotion. 

Here,  in  distant  Syria,  was  I,  a  Glasgow  man,  sharing  in 
this  song  from  the  pen  of  a  fellow-citizen,  and  the  melody 
also  written  by  one  closely  associated  with  the  Service  of 
Praise  in  the  Cathedral  of  Glasgow.  I  thought  of  the 
"  ocean  depths  "  of  that  wondrous  Love  that  is  fashioning 
one  great  family  of  all  the  nations  on  the  face  of  the 
earth. 

The  other  thought  was,  that  we  were  standing,  pos- 
sibly within  a  few  paces  of  the  veritable  spot  where  was 
planted  that  Cross  that  lifted  up  our  heads,  the  actual 
ground  where  was  shed  the  sacrificial  blood  whence 
blossoms  red  life  that  shall  endless  be.  It  was  in  my 
mind,  when  I  came  back  from  Palestine,  to  write  telling 
you  this  little  story  ;  but  alas  !  how  often  purposes  are 
allowed  to  slip  unfulfilled.  The  reading  of  the  sketch  in 
Saint  Andrew  revived  the  memory  and  rekindled  the 
desire. 

Suffer  an  aged  friend  and  warm  admirer  of  your 
writings,  one  who  has  passed  the  extreme  limit  of  the 
life's  journey  assigned  by  the  Psalmist,  to  express  the 
earnest  hope  that  God  may  spare  you  for  many  years 
to  continue  to  enrich  the  Christian  world  with  your 
noble,  inspiring  thought. — Believe  me,  etc. 

J.  Ingram. 

The  last  contribution  which  I  shall  give  in  this 
connection   was    sent    to    me    by   a    missionary    in 
India.     It  testifies  to  the  overwhelming  power  of 
13 


194        DEVOTION   AND   POETRY 

Matheson's  hymn  when  played  and  sung  by  a 
musician  of  the  first  rank  : 

It  was  in  March  1904,  and  the  sunshiny  scene  still 
lives  in  my  memory.  I  had  left  my  hotel  and  made  my 
way   through  the  picturesque   crowds    in    the   streets   of 

A .     The  Sabbath  was  essentially  a  French  one.     By 

force  of  habit  I  had  turned  aside  that  day  from  globe- 
trotting pursuits,  and  taken  my  place  in  the  Church  of 
the  United  Frees  among  some  threescore  of  God's  people, 
whose  mother-tongue  was  English. 

On  my  right  and  left  were  missionaries  of  the  North 
African  Mission.  They  found  it  refreshing  to  assemble 
for  worship,  in  the  midst  of  their  labours  among  a 
fanatical  Mahomedan  people ;  they  from  Africa  and  I 
from  India.  It  seemed  to  me  a  meeting  of  the  oceans, 
that  we  should  stand  for  worship  in  the  same  pew,  and 
sing  out  of  the  same  hymnal.  I  could  not,  of  course,  turn 
round  to  see  who  sat  behind,  but  worshippers  in  front 
looked  like  those  who  might  be  residing  in  this  watering- 
place  for  purposes  of  health  or  trade, — some  were  certainly, 
like  myself,  of  the  tourist  type.  Immediately  in  front  of 
me  was  the  English  Consul,  a  man  well  over  six  feet,  with 
shoulders  like  Sandow's.  On  his  left  was  his  wife — also 
tall  and  well  built. 

The  church  was  not  built  for  show,  but  for  use.  By  this 
I  do  not  mean  that  it  was  common.  There  was  an  aisle 
on  each  side,  and  the  seats  ran  right  across  the  width  of  the 
structure.  A  platform  was  placed  in  front,  on  the  side  of 
which  the  organ  stood.  The  pulpit  was  at  the  rear  of  this 
platform,  and  suitably  raised  for  its  purpose.  Thus 
minister  and  organist  were  in  our  full  view. 

The  organ  was  in  keeping  with  the  building :  a  plain 
instrument  of  the  American  type.  The  organist  was  a 
lady. 

What  the  minister  preached  about  I  really  forget. 
Perhaps  that  was  not  the  preacher's  fault.  He  was  a 
pastor  there  for  his  health,  and  displayed  no  special 
vigour.  I  have  no  objection  to  a  written  sermon,  but  that 
morning  the  read  sermon  seemed,  though  an  able  treatise, 


DEVOTION  AND   POETRY        195 

to  fall  flat.  The  order  of  service  was  what  I  had  been 
used  to  in  Wellesley  Square  United  Free  Church, 
Calcutta.  To  me  it  was  all  lifeless,  formal,  uneventful, 
messageless,  comfortless.  Even  the  words  and  music  of 
the  hymns  had  failed  to  stir  the  deeps  of  my  nature  that 
day.  I  blame  no  one.  Perhaps  I  was  not  in  a  receptive 
spirit.  I  cannot  tell — but  so  it  was.  On  went  the 
minutes,  and  I  was  not  sorry. 

The  hour  had  at  last  fled.  Invocations,  lessons,  prayers, 
sermon,  collection,  announcements  were  all  over.  What 
had  been  a  most  uneventful  service  to  me  was  now  to 
be  punctuated  by  a  hymn  and  a  benediction.  The 
minister  announced  George  Matheson's  "  O  Love  that  wilt 
not  let  me  go."  When  a  much  loved  hymn  is  announced 
in  Wales,  the  land  I  know  best,  the  people  stir  with  joy, 
and  cast  meaning  glances  at  each  other.  The  worshippers 
stand  as  if  to  pour  out  their  hearts,  and  one  gets  thrilled 
before  a  chord  is  struck.  That  morning  it  was  all 
contrary.  "  Listless "  could  have  been  written  over  the 
whole  service.  The  announcement  of  even  that  hymn 
seemed  to  stir  no  one. 

While  the  minister  was  reading  the  first  verse  I 
noticed  a  man  of,  perhaps,  fifty  change  seats  with  the  lady 
organist. 

It  was  nothing  to  mark.  "  He  is  the  local  organist," 
I  thought,  "and  the  lady  is  a  visitor."  Suddenly  the 
notes  were  touched  and  the  little  American  organ  seemed 
to  have  been  "  born  again."  Bar  followed  bar.  We  all 
brightened  up.  There  was  a  master  at  the  keys.  We 
stood  and  sang : 

"  O  Love  that  wilt  not  let  me  go, 
I  rest  my  weary  soul  in  Thee  : 
I  give  Thee  back  the  life  I  owe. 
That  in  Thine  ocean  depths  its  flow 
May  richer,  fuller  be." 

Was  the  change  in  me  or  in  my  environment?  I 
cannot  tell.  The  lost  chord  seemed  to  have  been  found. 
If  a  seraph  had  come  to  wake  me  with  a  song  of  Zion, 
the  surprise  would  not  have  been  greater.     The  organist 


196        DEVOTION  AND   POETRY 

seemed  in  the  third  heaven.  Here  and  there  he  made 
pauses  not  in  the  book.  He  sang  and  played  and 
carried  us  on  irresistibly.  Then  we  plunged  into  the 
second  verse : 

"  O  Light  that  followest  all  my  way, 
I  yield  my  flickering  torch  to  Thee : 
My  heart  restores  its  borrowed  ray, 
That  in  Thy  sunshine's  blaze  its  day 
May  brighter,  fairer  be." 

I  could  not  fail  to  notice  the  deep  emotion  of  the 
Consul's  wife,  for  she  stood  in  the  next  pew  in  front. 
She  had  ceased  to  sing,  her  trembling  was  manifest.  The 
music  was  like  the  sound  of  many  waters.  The  volume 
of  it  increased.     The  third  verse  was  reached : 

"  O  Joy  that  seekest  me  through  pain, 
I  cannot  close  my  heart  to  Thee : 
I  trace  the  rainbow  through  the  rain. 
And  feel  the  promise  is  not  vain, 

That  morn  shall  tearless  be." 

With  a  strange  suddenness  the  Consul's  wife  fell  on 
her  knees  and  was  convulsed  with  emotion.  With  her 
hands  she  covered  her  face,  while  the  majestic  music 
swept  on.  The  husband  knew  not  what  to  do,  for  all  eyes 
were  turned  towards  his  wife.  With  inborn  calmness 
and  strong  sympathy  he  then  bowed  in  prayer  at  his 
wife's  side.  The  sight  was  beautiful,  and  there  were  many 
wet  eyes  near  where  I  stood.  But  what  of  the  organist  ? 
He  was  in  rhapsody.  Down  his  furrowed  face  tears 
made  their  way.  His  head  of  curls  added  impressiveness 
to  the  scene.  Bending  over  the  keys,  he  poured  out  his 
very  soul.  Of  time  and  space  he  seemed  ignorant.  The 
emphasis  was  that  of  intense  feeling,  born  of  rare  experi- 
ence, controlled  by  musical  ability — both  instrumental  and 
vocal. 

When  we  reached  the  last  verse  I,  for  one,  wished 
blind  Matheson  had  provided  us  with  more.  And  yet 
we  might  not  have  been  able  to  bear  it. 


DEVOTION  AND   POETRY        197 

"  O  Cross  that  liftest  up  my  head, 
I  dare  not  ask  to  fly  from  Thee : 
I  lay  in  dust  life's  glory  dead, 
And  from  the  ground  there  blossoms  red 
Life  that  shall  endless  be." 

The  scene  continued  the  same  to  the  end,  only  with 
deeper  feeling.  Great  was  the  relief  when  the  last  note 
died  away,  and  the  minister,  as  awed  as  the  rest  of  us, 
pronounced  the  benediction.  So  great  was  the  solemnity 
of  the  occasion  that  no  one  wanted  to  disturb  the 
silence  by  rising  from  their  knees. 

When  the  congregation  did  rise  to  disperse,  several 
went  forward  to  thank  the  organist.  I  was  one  of  them. 
In  the  group  were  several  Americans,  and  one  said  to 
the  organist,  still  bathed  in  tear-marks,  "  We  knew  your 
wife."  The  one  answer  was  a  quiet  smile,  followed  by  a 
quick  retirement  from  the  church.  This  man  did  not 
feast  on  plaudits  or  compliments.  He  was  gone  before 
we  could  say  a  tithe  of  what  we  felt. 

In  the  aisles  and  at  the  church  door  I  learned  that 
the  man  who  had  waked  up  everybody's  soul  was  a 
distinguished  Christian  singer  of  England  and  Scotland. 
Two  years  before  his  wife  lay  a-dying — and  she  was  an 
American,  equal  to  him  in  musical  talent.  She  had 
asked  him  to  sing  to  her,  as  she  entered  the  valley  of  the 
shadow  of  death,  "  O  Love  that  wilt  not  let  me  go."  He 
did  so,  but  had  not  ventured  to  sing  it  again  until  that 
memorable  morning.  Ah,  that  was  a  sufficient  explana- 
tion.    Sorrow  had  wrought  the  power. 

I  wended  my  way  hotel-wards,  but  my  thoughts  were 
on  the  wings  of  the  music — "blossoming  red."  Such 
music  (that  lost  chord),  set  to  such  words,  I  can  never 
hope  to  hear  again  until  I  stand  within  the  gates  of  the 
New  Jerusalem. 


CHAPTER   VIII 

LAST   YEARS   AT   INNELLAN 

Dr.  Matheson's  congregation  at  Innellan  now 
felt  that  it  was  time  they  should  give  some  ex- 
pression to  their  feelings  of  admiration  for  him 
as  their  minister.  He  had  been  with  them  for 
fifteen  years,  and  he  had  endeared  himself  to  them 
in  many  ways.  As  a  preacher  and  a  writer  he 
had  won  recognition  from  a  wider  public.  His 
reputation  had  gained  for  him  academic  honours, 
and  theological  experts  had  cordially  accepted  his 
claims  as  an  author  of  undoubted  ability.  The 
people  of  Innellan,  who  had  from  the  very  first 
responded  to  his  eloquence  in  the  pulpit  and 
who  had  all  along  appreciated  his  pastoral  care, 
resolved  to  give  expression  to  their  gratitude. 
By  the  visitors  to  the  seaside  village,  and  by  a 
growing  circle  of  readers  of  his  books,  one  side 
of  his  character  and  one  aspect  of  his  work  were 
known ;  but  by  his  parishioners  he  was  also 
admired  for  his  interest  in  them,  for  his  con- 
cern and  sympathy  in  cases  of  moral  failure, 
of  bodily   sickness,    or  of  spiritual    distress.      Dr. 

198 


LAST  YEARS   AT   INNELLAN     199 

SIme,    speaking   of  his    work   in   this  connection, 
says  : 

As  our  professional  lives  in  the  place  intermingled 
everywhere,  it  was  not  only  in  the  library  of  the  manse 
that  we  met,  and  seldom  have  I  seen  a  clergyman  so  near 
the  heart  of  parishioners,  not  merely  in  prosperity  and 
success — that  is  easy  and  hardly  wanted — but  in  sorrow 
and  distress,  in  health  and  disease,  in  work  and  worship. 
His  cheerful,  uniformly  unclouded  optimism  was  every- 
where welcomed,  alike  in  joy  and  unhappiness,  in  disap- 
pointment and  failure.  He  was  the  instigator  of  the 
public  lectures  during  winter  and  the  centre  of  every 
good  movement  of  the  place,  and  his  humour  on  the 
platform  was  as  excellent  as  it  was  in  the  library  or  in 
private,  being  of  the  genuine  thistly  Celtic  character,  with 
much  imagination,  an  imagination  appealing  to  the  brain 
quite  as  much  as  the  heart.  But  he  could  be  found  manly 
with  all  his  cheerfulness  and  unwavering  optimism.  An 
intelligent  farmer,  a  favourite  of  his,  who  read  and  studied 
much  beyond  agriculture,  but  who  at  one  time  was  un- 
fortunately addicted  to  occasional  fits  of  bad  excess,  once, 
for  example,  told  me,  that  he  was  established  in  his 
quiet,  manly  restraint  by  one  or  two  observations  of  the 
blind  young  clergyman.  His  failing,  the  minister  said  to 
him,  was  no  doubt  due  to  a  hereditary  weakness,  but  there 
was  no  use  blaming  for  it  one's  forebears ;  that  was  not 
manly,  it  was  cowardly.  The  giving  way  to  the  failing 
was  a  return  to  the  brute,  a  still  older  forebear ;  all 
sensuality  and  selfish  appetite  and  ungovernable  greed 
being  a  return,  a  reversion,  to  the  beast  in  man.  The 
weakness  was  there,  in  even  a  good,  noble  man,  for  him 
to  conquer,  and  to  make  a  good,  clever  man  the  best  of 
men.  Renunciation,  he  said,  was  the  essential  to  the 
primary  condition,  for  a  brave  worthy  man  to  show  his 
sterling  worth. 

Again,  to  reveal  the  condition  of  mind  of  my  friend  as 
he  even  departed  from,  not  entered,  the  house  of  genuine 
tribulation.  On  another  occasion  I  remember  to  have 
suddenly  met  him  with  his  private  secretary,  which  I  often 


200     LAST  YEARS   AT  INNELLAN 

did,  as  they  were  just  coming  out  of  the  garden  of  a 
patient.  This  patient  had  been  long  ill  of  a  mortal 
disease,  and  was  at  that  time  near  death.  The  resigna- 
tion of  this  lady  and  her  saintly  suffering  had  been  long 
noted,  and  spoken  of,  by  Dr.  Matheson.  As  I  passed 
into  the  garden  walk,  my  friend,  laying  his  hand  on  my 
shoulders,  assured  me  in  a  word  that  the  serenity  of  the 
summer  sky  was  now  in  the  lady's  talk,  for  possibly,  he 
added,  there  was  in  her  vision  the  rosy  gates  of  some 
Paradise. 

It  was  on  the  last  Saturday  of  August  1883, 
just  before  the  crowd  of  summer  visitors  had  begun 
to  leave  Innellan,  that  Dr.  Matheson  was  invited  to 
meet  the  congregation  in  the  Parish  Church,  to 
receive  at  their  hands  a  token  of  their  esteem  and 
admiration  of  him  personally,  and  of  gratitude 
for  the  help  his  books  and  sermons  had  given 
them. 

Mr  WilHam  Stevenson,  Colinwood  House,  a 
lifelong  friend  and  admirer  of  Dr.  Matheson, 
presided,  and,  in  making  the  presentation,  said  : 

Dr.  Matheson  has  now  been  fully  fifteen  years  in 
Innellan,  having  been  ordained  on  28th  May  1868.  Those 
present  know  how  the  church  had  grown.  I  remember  a 
few  years  ago,  when  their  minister  was  plain  Mr.  Matheson, 
saying  to  him  :  Well,  Mr.  Matheson,  I'll  live  to  see  the  day 
when  the  people  will  fill  the  passages.  Dr.  Matheson  laughed 
at  me,  but  I  leave  those  present  to  judge  whether  or  not  I 
was  a  true  prophet.  1  had  taken  a  leading  part  in  getting 
the  little  church  endowed  and  Innellan  erected  into  a 
parish.  That  was  in  1873.  Looking  over  old  books  and 
papers,  I  find  that  at  that  time  the  ordinary  collection 
was  very  modest,  and  when  it  ascended  to  the  munifi- 
cent sum  of  a  few  shillings  we  were  all  surprised,  and 
rejoiced  with  an  exceeding  great  joy.  That  was  not  long 
ago.      Now   the    ordinary   collections    average   over   six 


LAST  YEARS   AT   INNELLAN     201 

pounds.  To  what  was  this  due  ?  To  what  and  to  whom 
but  to  the  work  and  person  of  him  in  whose  honour  we 
have  met  to-night.  I  do  not  need  to  speak  to  you  of  the 
good  works  and  words  of  Dr.  Matheson.  Dr.  Matheson 
is  known  over  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land,  and  our 
Innellan  is  known  and  renowned  as  the  place  where  lives 
and  works  Dr.  George  Matheson,  the  Preacher,  Theologian, 
and  Poet. 

Dr.  Matheson,  replying  on  behalf  of  his  sister, 
who  was  associated  with  him  in  the  gift,  and  him- 
self, said  : 

It  is  with  feelings  of  deep  emotion  that  I  rise  this  night 
to  thank  you.  I  have  to  thank  you,  Mr.  Stevenson,  for 
that  energetic  kindness  which,  after  having  been  one  of 
my  main  supports  since  the  inauguration  of  this  parish, 
has  crowned  itself  in  the  initiation  of  a  movement  so 
friendly  and  so  disinterested ;  and  I  have  to  thank  you, 
ladies  and  gentlemen,  for  the  warm  and  generous  co- 
operation with  which  the  movement  has  been  seconded 
and  sustained.  There  are  times  in  a  man's  life  in  which 
he  seems  to  stand  on  the  summit  of  a  Nebo,  not  to  behold 
a  promised  land  in  the  future,  but  to  survey  the  trodden 
country  of  the  past.  Such  a  moment  have  you  brought 
to  me.  You  have  caused  me  to  hear  a  rush  of  old 
memories — the  spiritual  refrain  of  a  ministry  of  fifteen 
years.  The  costly  and  munificent  gift  which  this  night 
you  have  presented  to  me  is  no  mere  piece  of  mechanism ; 
it  is  a  piece  of  mechanism  with  a  heart  in  it — the  united 
hearts  of  a  congregation.  What  you  have  really  given  me 
is  yourselves.  You  have  given  me  your  affection,  your 
sympathy,  your  interest,  your  responsive  greeting,  and  I 
feel  that  the  labour  of  life  is  cheered,  and  that  the  work  of 
life  is  rewarded,  in  receiving  the  communion  and  fellowship 
of  so  many  kindred  souls. 

To  me,  in  more  senses  than  one,  your  gift  measures 
time.  It  takes  me  back  to  the  days  when  I  stood  amongst 
you  an  untried,  inexperienced  youth,  not  perhaps  illiterate 
as  to  what  is  called  the  lore  of  universities,  but  altogether 


202     LAST   YEARS   AT   INNELLAN 

unread  in  that  noblest  of  all  studies — the  book  of  human 
nature.  To  you,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  am  I  indebted  for 
this  crowning  knowledge;  it  is  I,  this  night,  that  should 
be  the  donor  and  you  who  should  be  the  receivers.  It  was 
in  union  with  your  joys  and  sorrows,  it  was  in  sympathy 
with  your  summer  and  winter  hours,  that  I  first  learned 
that  greatest  lesson  of  humanity — the  need  of  man  for 
man.  It  was  in  the  dawning  of  that  new  interest  which 
made  your  cares  my  responsibilities,  that  life  itself  woke 
into  reality,  into  solemnity,  into  joy.  Need  I  say  that  the 
chain  you  have  woven  round  me  is  one  that  can  never  be 
severed.  No  change  of  locality  could  sever  it ;  it  no  longer 
belongs  to  any  locality,  it  is  a  fact  of  the  spirit.  The 
associations  of  our  youth  are  like  Tennyson's  brook — Men 
may  come  and  men  may  go,  but  they  keep  on  for  ever. 
Youth  fades,  times  change,  prophecies  fail,  forms  of  know- 
ledge vanish  away ;  but  the  loves  of  our  early  years,  the 
friendships  of  our  morning's  glow,  are  photographed  in  our 
hearts  in  beams  that  cannot  die,  and  keep  their  fadeless 
bloom  when  suns  have  set:  such  a  remembrance  will  I 
have  of  you. 

Matheson's  intellectual  interests  beofan  about 
this  time  to  take  a  new  direction,  or,  more  correctly 
speaking,  to  flow  in  a  fresh  channel.  He  had  for 
the  time  being  exhausted  all  he  had  to  say  on  the 
great  questions  of  speculative  theology.  He  had 
discussed  religion  from  the  point  of  view  of 
philosophy,  and  he  now  felt  called  upon  to  treat 
it  in  relation  to  science.  In  his  three  important 
works  up  to  this  date — Aids  to  the  Study  of 
German  Theology,  Growth  of  the  Spirit  of 
Christianity,  and  Natural  Elements  of  Revealed 
Theology — he  had  endeavoured  to  expound  the 
development  of  religion  in  its  threefold  aspects  as 
a  necessary  process  in   the  mind  of  man,   in  its 


LAST   YEARS   AT   INNELLAN     203 

visible  manifestation  in  the  Christian  Church,  and 
as  it  had  revealed  itself  on  the  larger  plane  of 
universal  experience.  The  recent  trend  of  scientific 
thought  put  a  stop  for  the  moment  to  his  buoyant 
flight,  and  brought  him  to  the  earth  by  the  startling 
question,  What  if  the  religious  instinct  itself  be  but 
a  mere  dream,  and  human  belief  and  man's  specu- 
lation on  divine  things  be  but  empty  shadows  ? 
The  doctrine  of  evolution,  which  had  now  received 
a  twofold  exposition,  first  by  Darwin  on  its  scientific, 
and  secondly  by  Herbert  Spencer  on  its  philo- 
sophical side,  appeared  to  hold  the  field,  and  to 
confine  man  within  the  bonds  of  nature,  and  to 
control  him  by  inviolable  laws. 

Matheson,  even  previous  to  this  date,  showed 
keen  interest  in  scientific  pursuits  and  discoveries. 
His  friend  Dr.  Sime,  who  had  also  a  lively  interest 
in  such  matters,  used  to  discuss  them  frequently 
with  him.     He  says  : 

He  was  deeply  interested  in  scientific  study. 
Archaeology,  anthropology,  and  prehistoric  humanity 
constituted  a  very  frequent  subject  of  thought  and  talk. 
The  worship  of  a  mere  boulder,  or  block  of  stone,  so 
characteristic  of  savages  to  this  day,  was  of  deep 
significance  to  him,  and  an  indication  of  the  intrinsic 
difference  between  man  and  beast.  When  man  came, 
wonder  and  worship  came.  "  The  prehistoric  man,"  he 
used  to  say,  "  did  not  bow  down  to  worship  the  block  of 
stone  any  more  than  does  the  modern  savage.  That  is  a 
weak,  even  an  absurd,  deduction  of  the  good,  well-meaning 
missionaries.  He  knew  that  as  a  lonely,  weird  boulder  it 
stood  on  the  moor  or  headland  in  his  father's,  his  grand- 
father's, and  his  great-grandfather's  time;  he  knew  that 
it   would   stand   there   in   his   children's   and   his   great- 


204  LAST  YEARS  AT  IIS!  NELL  AN 

grandchildren's  time.  Everything  else  passed  away ;  the 
clouds,  the  leaves,  the  flowers,  the  beasts,  men,  everyone, 
but  the  boulder  remained.  As  a  rugged  symbol  of  the 
permanent  in  the  passing — for  even  to  him  there  was 
something  enduring  in  the  universe — it  was  his  nearest 
conception  of  God,  it  was  the  one  permanent  thing  he 
could  see."  Again,  the  revelations  of  Pasteur  in  respect 
of  micro-organisms  and  their  influence  on  disease,  his 
opening  up  the  new  great  field  of  bacteriology,  like  a  new 
avenue  into  the  most  secret  arcana  of  nature,  and  likewise 
Lister's  godlike  creation  of  the  antiseptic  treatment,  filled 
him  with  enthusiasm.  Lord  Kelvin's  works  and  Huxley's, 
Tyndall's,  and  Max  Miiller's,  were  also  often  in  his  mind. 
His  interest  in  the  greatest  scientific  questions  was  so 
profound,  and  so  materially  did  they  influence  him,  that 
in  after  years  he  was  elected  a  Fellow  of  the  Royal  Society 
of  Edinburgh. 

Referring  to  the  conversation  that  took  place 
between  the  late  James  Sime  and  Matheson, 
on  the  evening  already  spoken  of,  the  doctor 
continues  : 

How  much  these  two  had  to  say  to  each  other. 
Agnosticism  was  discussed,  and  a  good  idea  of  Dr. 
Matheson's  talk  on  the  subject  may  be  had  in  the  fine 
article  on  "  Agnosticism,"  which  years  afterwards  he 
wrote  to  The  Scottish  Review.  My  brother's  account  of 
Lessing's  Education  of  the  Human  Race  thrilled  the  young 
poet-preacher,  for  although  the  work  was  not  unknown  to 
him,  its  significance  in  the  thought  of  our  own  times  came 
upon  him  as  a  great  revelation.  Not  that  he  was  not 
familiar  with  some  of  the  works  of  Lessing,  especially 
with  Laokoofi  and  Nathan  the  Wise^  the  latter  of 
which  he  greatly  esteemed  as  the  radiant  picture  of  a 
calm,  radiant  soul. 

"  Why,  this  essay  of  Lessing  you  speak  of,"  I  remember 
him  saying,  "  I  shall  get  it  at  once.  It  is  grand,  a  poet's 
precursor,  the  very  dawn  in  purest,  sweetest  light  of 
Hegel's  growth,  and  of  Darwin's  sublime  evolution  of  life. 


LAST  YEARS   AT   INNELLAN     205 

After  all,  education  does  not  create  any  new  faculty 
or  power,  it  only  educes,  brings  to  light  and  into  action 
what  powers  are  there ;  so  perhaps  it  is  with  evolution." 
It  was  suggested  that  for  every  new  type  of  being  in  the 
living  kingdoms,  that  for  every  family  or  class  in  the 
vegetable  and  the  animal  worlds,  that  for  every  rising  in 
the  scale  of  life  there  was  a  new  access  of  deity,  and  that 
certainly  there  was  this  on  the  arrival  of  man  in  the 
animal  kingdom,  and  on  the  appearance  of  every  man  of 
genius  since.  My  brother  liked  the  suggestion  that 
evolution  began  and  still  continues  from  above,  not  from 
below,  like  spring  from  on  high  awakening  the  lilies  of 
the  valley.  "  My  dear  fellow,"  said  my  friend,  turning  to 
me,  "the  highest  and  most  perfect  access  of  deity,  and 
which  can  never  be  transcended — it  is  unique — is  the 
Christ  of  Galilee.  You  are  right,  evolution  begins  from 
above,  and  the  Christ  is  the  transcendent  beginning  and 
end  of  evolution." 

The  incident  thus  recorded  must  have  taken 
place  in  the  early  seventies,  for  it  v^as  before 
Matheson  had  published  anything.  For  the  next 
decade  the  ideas  which  began  at  that  time  to 
germinate  in  his  mind  steadily  grew  and  developed. 
The  balance  of  the  serious  thought  of  his  day 
towards  evolution,  and  its  relation  to,  and  effects 
upon,  religious  belief,  naturally  deepened  his  interest 
in  the  subject.  He  had  written  no  book  of  a 
scientific  nature  in  theology  or  philosophy  since  his 
Baird  Lecture,  and  during  the  five  years  that  had 
elapsed  between  it  and  his  next  important  book. 
Can  the  Old  Faith  Live  with  the  New  f  he  made  a 
profound  study  of  the  doctrine  of  evolution  and  its 
bearings  on  religious  belief.  The  first-fruits  of  this 
study  was  the  fine  article  on  "Agnosticism," 
referred  to  by  Dr.  Sime,  which  was  published  in 


206     LAST  YEARS   AT   INNELLAN 

The  Scottish  Review  in  1 883.  But  more  striking  and 
significant  was  the  address  delivered  by  him  at  the 
Pan-Presbyterian  Council,  which  met  at  Belfast  in 
the  beginning  of  June  1884.  The  subject  chosen 
by  him  for  his  address  was  the  "  Religious  Bearings 
of  the  Doctrine  of  Evolution."  In  it  we  have  the 
leading  thought  of  all  he  ever  afterwards  wrote  on 
the  subject.  His  delivery  of  the  address  made 
a  deep  impression.  As  a  token  of  its  power  and 
eloquence  certain  of  the  Scottish  newspapers  did 
it  the  honour  of  publishing  It  almost  In  full.  No 
similar  tribute  was  paid  to  any  of  the  other 
speakers,  though  among  them  were  Drs.  Hodge 
and  Schaff,  and  other  leading  lights  of  the  Presby- 
terian Church.  A  correspondent  thus  describes 
the  occasion  : 

''  The  most  interesting  appearance  yet  made  by 
any  member  of  Council  has  been  that  of  Dr.  Mathe- 
son  of  Innellan.  Unable,  from  his  affliction  of  total 
blindness,  to  read  the  paper  on  Evolution  which 
stood  in  his  name,  Dr.  Matheson  asked  and 
obtained  leave  to  expound  the  gist  of  It  verbally  ; 
and  for  much  more  than  the  usually  allotted  time — 
twenty  minutes  for  each  paper — he  held  the  Council 
in  delio^hted  attention  to  one  of  the  most  lucid  and 
eloquent  philosophical  expositions  we  ever  heard. 
Dr.  Matheson  sat  down  amidst  a  tempest  of 
applause,  again  and  again  renewed."  The  late 
Professor  Lee  of  Glasgow,  who  was  present, 
declared  :  "  None  of  us  will  ever  fororet  the  Intel- 
lectual  treat  experienced  in  that  admirable,  and,  In 


LAST   YEARS   AT   INNELLAN     207 

many  respects,  wonderful  address  on  Evolution, 
delivered  by  a  neighbour  of  my  own,  Dr.  Matheson 
of  Innellan."  And  the  late  Professor  Calderwood 
expressed  the  unanimous  feeling  of  the  audience 
when  he  said  :  *'The  Council  all  feel  that  God  has 
closed  your  eyes  only  to  open  other  eyes,  which 
have  made  you  one  of  the  guides  of  men.  Your 
speech  to-day  was  a  perfect  guide  to  the  Council." 

Dr.  Robertson  Nicoll,  who  was  present  at 
the  meetings  of  the  Council,  and  who  was  also  a 
fellow-guest  with  Matheson,  gives  the  following 
impressions  : — 

My  first  meeting  with  Dr.  Matheson  will  always  be 
memorable  to  me.  It  was  at  the  Pan-Presbyterian  Council 
in  Belfast,  held,  I  think,  in  the  year  1884.  We  were  the 
guests  of  the  late  Rev.  Dr.  William  Johnston  and  Mrs. 
Johnston,  and  we  had  as  fellow-guests  the  late  Rev.  Dr. 
William  Wright  of  the  Bible  Society  and  his  wife.  Our 
host  and  hostess  made  a  very  notable  couple.  They  had 
no  children,  and  they  were  at  the  head  of  the  magnificent 
orphan  scheme  carried  on  by  the  Presbyterian  Church  of 
Ireland.  By  this  every  Presbyterian  orphan  child  in 
necessity  is  taken  care  of  Dr.  Johnston  had  also  a  very 
large  congregation,  mostly  of  the  working  class,  and  was 
particularly  active  as  an  ecclesiastical  and  philanthropic 
leader.  His  wife,  a  lady  of  very  marked  ability,  was  his 
right  hand  in  everything.  Never  have  I  seen  such  days 
of  strenuous  work,  beginning  when  the  post  arrived  with  a 
huge  number  of  letters,  and  never  closing  till  midnight. 
It  was  an  education  to  live  with  them.  Dr.  Matheson 
came  with  a  great  reputation,  and  amply  sustained  it  at 
the  Council.  In  the  house  he  immediately  became  a 
favourite  with  everyone.  I  shall  never  forget  his  hearty 
interest  in  all  that  went  on  within  and  without.  He 
strenuously  attended  the  meetings,  and  brought  back  the 
most  vivid  impressions  of  them.     What  struck  me  most 


208     LAST  YEARS   AT  INNELLAN 

was  his  keen  sense  of  humour,  and  his  delicate  perception. 
You  were  always  forgetting  that  he  was  blind.  He 
seemed  to  know  who  were  in  the  room  and  where  they 
were  sitting.  Mrs.  Johnston  was  in  delicate  health,  and 
unable  to  attend  the  meetings  of  the  Council,  and  Dr. 
Matheson  very  thoughtfully  and  sedulously  set  himself  to 
tell  her  everything  that  had  happened.  We  who  were 
privileged  to  listen  saw  how  he  had  learned  to  compose 
mentally.  Every  sentence  he  uttered  might  have  been 
printed.  His  criticism  was  often  keen,  but  it  was  always 
kindly.  I  had  the  privilege  of  accompanying  him  to 
several  of  the  meetings,  and  was  amazed  by  the  acuteness 
with  which  he  summarised  and  criticised  the  speeches. 
One  speech  he  disliked.  It  was  made  by  an  American 
professor,  and  was  a  defence  of  verbal  inspiration.  Dr. 
Matheson  took  exception  to  the  confident  tone  of  the  pro- 
fessor, and  thought  his  arguments  inadequate.  The  great 
day  of  the  Council  was  one  on  which  an  American,  the 
late  Dr.  G.  P.  Hays  of  Denver,  was  chairman.  At  first  his 
pronounced  Americanism  seemed  to  bode  ill  for  a  peaceful 
day,  but  very  soon  he  established  an  extraordinary 
dominion  over  the  audience,  and  poured  out  such  a  wealth 
of  wisdom  and  wit  as  to  surprise  and  delight  everyone. 
Dr.  Matheson  was  sitting  next  me,  and  at  first  expressed 
his  discomfort  and  dissatisfaction,  but  he  was  soon  subdued, 
and  then  he  became  radiant.  I  went  home  with  him,  and 
for  Mrs.  Johnston's  benefit  he  went  through  the  story  of 
the  day.  His  memory  was  truly  marvellous,  and  his 
power  of  imagination.  I  shall  never  forget  the  helpless 
laughter  to  which  we  were  all  reduced  by  his  reproductions 
of  Dr.  Hays'  racy  anecdotes.  Dr.  Matheson  himself  laughed 
more  heartily  than  any  of  the  rest.  It  was  truly  a  good 
evening.  On  another  night  he  was  intensely  pleased  with 
a  speech  by  Dr.  Stalker  in  favour  of  a  more  ornate  and 
elaborate  ritual  in  Presbyterian  churches.  It  was  a  bold, 
thing  to  make  the  speech,  for  at  that  time  the  Presbyterian 
Church  of  Ireland  was  discussing  with  some  keenness 
the  use  of  organs  in  public  worship.  Dr.  Matheson  was 
heartily  in  sympathy  with  Dr.  Stalker,  and  said  that  the 
arrangement  and  expression  of  his  speech  could  not  have 


LAST  YEARS   AT   INNELLAN     209 

been  improved.  He  searched  for  an  adjective  to  describe 
the  speech,  and  found  rest  at  last  in  the  word  Aristotelian. 
I  had  an  opportunity  of  some  private  conversation  on 
theological  questions  with  Dr.  Matheson.  He  said  that 
he  had  been  a  strong  Evangelical,  and  was  so  still,  but  that 
he  was  now  very  decidedly  in  sympathy  with  Broad 
Churchism.  I  do  not  think  he  went  so  far  in  that 
direction  as  he  supposed,  for  he  spoke  in  warm  praise  of 
Dr.  Liddon's  lectures,  entitled  Some  Elements  of  Religion. 
In  particular  he  praised  the  lecture  on  Prayer.  He  left 
the  impression  on  my  mind  of  a  singularly  noble,  beautiful, 
and  unselfish  personality.  He  did  everything  he  could  to 
keep  his  blindness  out  of  sight  so  that  it  might  not  weigh 
on  anyone's  spirits,  and  he  succeeded  so  well  that  it  was 
only  on  occasion  that  one  became  aware  of  how  much  he 
was  missing.  His  was  a  truly  valiant  and  indeed  heroic 
spirit.  I  will  only  add  that  I  had  many  occasions  to 
remark  Dr.  Matheson's  great  gratitude  for  trifling  kind- 
nesses— a  gratitude  which  often  seemed  much  in  excess  of 
the  occasion.  He  was  able  to  do  his  work  without  praise, 
but  the  friendship  and  recognition  of  his  fellow-workers 
was  precious  to  him,  and,  staunchly  attached  as  he  was 
to  the  principles  of  his  own  Church,  his  spirit  was  most 
catholic  and  wise. 

The  address,  which  was  afterwards  published  in 
the  Transactions  of  the  Council,  blunts  the  edge  of 
the  evolutionist's  attack,  by  declaring  in  its  opening 
sentences  that  the  doctrine  of  evolution  originated 
in  the  Christian  Church  itself.  The  speaker  points 
in  proof  of  this  to  the  controversy  that  arose  in  the 
first  centuries  between  Creationists  and  Traduci- 
anists  ;  the  former  holding  that  the  soul  of  man  came 
into  the  world  at  birth  by  a  separate  act  of  creation, 
the  latter  holding  that  the  soul  of  each  man  was 
derived  at  birth  from  the  essence  of  the  soul  of  his 
parents,  and  that  therefore  all  souls  were  originally 
14 


210     LAST   YEARS   AT   INNELLAN 

included  in  a  single  life — the  primeval  Adam.  The 
traducianist's  view  was  clearly  the  very  principle  of 
the  modern  doctrine  of  evolution,  the  reduction  of 
the  many  to  the  one,  a  view  which  the  Church 
maintained  to  be  on  the  whole  more  orthodox  than 
the  other.  Having  thus  shown  that  the  new  idea 
which  the  doctrine  of  evolution  had  introduced  into 
the  thought  of  the  day  was  in  reality  an  old  doctrine 
of  the  Christian  Church,  he  proceeds  to  discuss  the 
conception  of  force  and  its  relation  to  matter,  and 
in  a  lucid  piece  of  argumentation  shows  how  the 
belief  in  the  Divine  Spirit,  which  was  of  the  essence 
of  the  Christian  faith,  was  a  more  intelligible  view 
of  the  genesis  and  development  of  nature  and  of  life 
than  the  inscrutable  Force  of  the  evolutionists.  In 
any  case,  that  there  was  nothing  in  modern  scientific 
belief  which  could  be  regarded  as  contradictory  to 
the  fundamental  principles  of  the  Christian  religion  ; 
in  fact,  that  these  principles,  worked  out  on  evolu- 
tionary lines,  give  a  more  rational  view  of  the  world 
than  the  Spencerian  philosophy.  Matheson  ac- 
cordingly, while  neither  accepting  nor  rejecting 
evolution  as  a  fact  scientifically  proved,  welcomed 
the  ideas  which  it  embodied  as  aids  to  the  study 
and  better  understanding  of  the  Christian  religion. 

In  the  following  year,  the  spring  of  1885, 
Matheson  published  the  most  important  of  his 
books  hitherto.  Can  the  Old  Faith  Live  with  the 
New?  or,  the  Problem  of  Evolution  and  Revelation. 
I  remember  meeting  him  a  month  or  two  before 
its  appearance.     He  was  in  the  most  cheerful  of 


LAST   YEARS   AT   INNELLAN     211 

moods,  and  told  me  about  his  new  book,  which  had 
just  been  accepted  by  Blackwood.  This  was  the 
first  occasion  on  which  he  had  been  brought  into 
business  relations  with  the  famous  Edinbureh 
house,  and  he  felt  not  a  little  pleased  at  his  work 
being  so  readily  accepted  by  it.  He  was  full  of  the 
subject,  and  I  was  deeply  impressed  by  his  attitude. 
He  struck  me  as  a  man  who  had  achieved  a 
triumph,  who  had  overcome  some  great  difficulty, 
and   felt   the   increased   power   which    his   victory 


gave. 


Matheson's  position  in  relation  to  the  doctrine 
of  evolution  as  discussed  in  his  book  is  very 
characteristic.  He  does  not  commit  himself  to 
it ;  he  expresses  no  opinion  as  to  the  validity 
of  the  doctrine  ;  his  sole  object  is  to  inquire.  If 
the  doctrine  be  true,  what  then  ?  He  differs  in 
this  respect  from  two  important  books  which  he 
declares  stimulated  his  attempt ;  that  of  Mr.  Joseph 
John  Murphy  on  the  Scientific  Bases  of  Faith,  and 
that  of  Professor  H.  X^xwrviVixonA  on  Natural  Law 
in  the  Spiritual  World.  '*  Both  of  these  books,"  as 
he  remarks,  **  are  in  their  nature  constructive  ;  their 
aim  is  to  build  a  faith  on  the  acceptance  of  the 
modern  doctrine  of  evolution."  He,  on  the  other 
hand,  pronounces  no  opinion  on  the  validity  of  the 
doctrine  ;  his  purpose  is  purely  analytic.  He  places 
evolution  side  by  side  with  those  doctrines  of 
revelation  which  seem  to  come  into  contact  with  it, 
and  seeks  impartially  to  consider  the  question,  How 
the  adoption  of  the  former  would  affect  our  accept- 


212     LAST   YEARS   AT   INNELLAN 

ance  of  the  latter?  In  the  opening  chapters  he 
considers  the  scientific  value  of  the  religious  senti- 
ment in  general.  He  felt  compelled  to  do  this, 
seeing  that  natural  evolution  is  supposed  to  involve 
religious  agnosticism.  He  accordingly  discusses 
the  place  for  faith  in  the  system  of  nature,  whether 
the  object  of  faith  is  knowable,  and  the  conditions 
requisite  to  Divine  knowledge.  In  the  subsequent 
chapters  he  treats  of  the  special  doctrines  with 
which  evolution  comes  directly  into  touch,  and 
considers  how,  if  at  all,  it  affects  them.  These  are 
*'  Creation,"  *'  Special  Creation,"  the  "  Divine  Origin 
of  Life,"  ''Primitive  Man,"  '' Providence,"  ''The 
Second  Adam,"  the  *'  Work  of  the  Spirit,"  ''  Divine 
Communion,"  and  "  Immortality." 

Matheson's  book  was  opportune.  It  fell  upon 
a  public  ready  to  welcome  it.  The  subject  had 
been  gradually  assuming  large  proportions,  and  the 
faith  of  many  was  distressed.  Darwin  was  being 
out-Darwined,  and  many  scientific  men,  without 
the  caution  of  the  author  of  T^e  Origin  of 
Species,  were  driving  his  ideas  to  extremes  that 
seemed  dangerous  to  religious  belief  Apologists 
of  Christianity  were  taking  their  place  in  the  field  ; 
and  the  press,  the  pulpit,  and  the  platform  rang 
with  the  war-cries  of  the  opposing  schools  of 
thought.  It  was  freely  admitted  at  the  time,  and 
it  has  never  been  denied  since,  that  Matheson's 
book  was  the  most  important  contribution  made  to 
the  controversy  up  to  the  date  of  its  publication. 
And    this    was    the    opinion    of   both  sides.      Its 


LAST   YEARS   AT   INNELLAN     213 

breadth  of  view,  its  freedom  from  dogmatism,  its 
cordial  recognition  of  the  position  of  the  evolu- 
tionist as  well  as  of  the  religionist,  its  grasp  of 
fundamental  principles,  its  intimate  knowledge  of 
the  points  in  dispute,  its  keen  logic  and  its  urbane 
spirit,  caused  it  to  be  welcomed  by  every  party  and 
to  secure  a  hearing  in  every  quarter.  Its  value  as 
a  contribution  to  the  subject  in  dispute  consisted  in 
the  simple,  yet  far-reaching,  fact,  that  even  though 
evolution,  as  rationalised  in  the  philosophy  of 
Herbert  Spencer,  were  accepted,  it  would  not  in 
the  slightest  degree  invalidate  the  doctrines  of  the 
Christian  religion,  which  it  was  supposed  to 
destroy.  On  the  contrary,  that  these  doctrines 
shone  more  luminous  in  the  light  of  the  ideas 
which  the  new  age  introduced,  and  became  more 
pregnant  of  Divine  meaning  because  of  them. 

Matheson  in  this  book,  as  in  most  of  his  other 
writings,  was  true  to  his  own  spirit.  His  work  in 
the  world  was  that  of  a  great  reconciler.  He  had 
already  in  the  sphere  of  theology  done  his  part  in 
bringing  into  intelligible  relationship  the  conflicting 
creeds  of  mankind.  He  had  now  started  on  a  new 
enterprise,  and  aimed  at  bringing  under  one  great 
idea  religious  thought  and  scientific  discovery. 
Here  we  have  the  true  Christian  Theist ;  and 
Professor  Flint  in  his  article  on  "  Theism,"  in 
the  Encyclopcedia  Britannica,  elaborates  and  con- 
firms this  position.  The  Christian  idea  of  God  is 
flexible  and  comprehensive  enough  to  find  room 
for   truth,   from    whatever    quarter   it   may   come. 


214     LAST   YEARS   AT   INNELLAN 

Every  new  fact  is  unintelligible  until  it  is  related  to 
this  idea ;  this  idea  itself  is  imperfect  until  its 
content  is  enriched  by  every  new  fact.  If  evolution, 
then,  has  made  discoveries,  why  should  the  scientist 
be  arrogant  or  the  Christian  be  afraid  ?  Matheson's 
book  was  an  answer  to  this  question,  and  it  con- 
tributed not  a  little  to  that  mutual  understanding 
between  science  and  religion,  the  first-fruits  of 
which  Matheson  saw  before  he  died. 

The  reception  given  to  the  book  was  hearty 
in  the  extreme.  Long  reviews  of  it  appeared 
in  the  more  important  literary  organs  of  opinion. 
Objections  here  and  there  were  taken  to  de- 
tails, but  the  book  as  a  whole  was  accepted  as 
of  the  first  rank.  Matheson's  position  was  now 
thoroughly  established.  He  was  only  in  his  forty- 
third  year,  and  although  he  might  attain  fresh 
triumphs,  these  could  only  add  to  a  reputation 
already  great. 

His  name  now  began  to  be  a  familiar  one  in 
the  highest  quarters.  Among  his  admirers  was 
Lord  Tennyson.  He  appreciated  in  his  writings 
profound  thought  set  forth  in  picturesqueness  of 
phrase,  and  imaginative  beauty  balanced  withal  by 
intense  practicality.  This  union  of  qualities,  usually 
severed,  commended  his  writings  to  the  poet.  An 
interesting  letter  from  the  late  Duke  of  Argyll  to  the 
Rev.  Dr.  MacGregor  of  St  Cuthbert's,  Edinburgh, 
bears  on  this  point.  It  was  written  a  year  or  two 
after  the  publication  of  his  book,  Can  the  Old  Faith 
Live  with  the  New?   but  it  is  more  than  likely 


LAST   YEARS   AT   INNELLAN     215 

that  it  Is  the  volume  referred  to  in  the  letter.  One 
may  feel  some  surprise  at  the  Duke  being  ignorant 
of  so  near  and  so  distinguished  a  neighbour  of  his 
own,  and  one  who  had  just  written  on  a  subject 
with  which  he  himself  was  so  familiar.  But  even 
so  universal  a  man  as  the  Duke  could  not  be  ex- 
pected to  know  everyone  and  everything  : 

Argyll  Lodge,  Kensington, 
August  3,  il 


I  have  been  to  see  old  Tennyson — soon  to  enter  his 
eightieth  year — yet  writing  as  beautifully  as  of  yore.  I  found 
that  the  Bishop  of  Ripon  had  lately  been  on  a  visit,  and  as 
the  poet  is  an  omnivorous  reader,  he  had  recommended, 
among  other  books,  some  by  Dr.  Matheson  of  Innellan,  of 
whom  I  had  never  heard  before.  I  saw  one  of  his  books 
on  Tennyson's  table,  and  his  son  told  me  it  seemed  a 
strong  book.  Tell  me  all  you  know  of  Matheson,  who  I 
hear  is  a  friend  of  yours. 

The  final  crown  to  his  reputation  was  still  to 
come.  It  was  the  ambition  of  ministers  of  the 
Established  Church  of  Scotland,  during  the  reign 
of  the  late  Queen  Victoria,  to  be  invited  to  Balmoral 
to  preach  before  Her  Majesty.  Ever  since  the  day 
when  Dr.  Norman  Macleod  and  Principal  Tulloch 
won  her  confidence  and  esteem  by  their  large- 
heartedness  and  simple  presentation  of  Christian 
truth.  Queen  Victoria  had  a  liking  for  the  Church 
of  Scotland  and  its  ministers.  It  was  her  custom 
to  summon  to  Balmoral  duringf  her  residence 
there  the  more  noted  of  the  clergy  of  the  Estab- 
lished Church,  in  order  that  they  might  conduct 
the  service  in  the   Parish  Church  of  Crathie   on 


216     LAST   YEARS   AT   INNELLAN 

the  Sunday,  or,  should  Her  Majesty  prefer  it,  in 
the  Castle  itself.  In  most  cases  names  were 
submitted  to  the  Queen  for  her  approval,  and  by 
her  command  the  clergyman  selected  was  invited  to 
appear.  In  rarer  instances  she  suggested  the  name 
herself,  and  this  was  the  case  with  Dr.  Matheson. 
It  was  by  her  unsolicited  royal  command  that  he 
preached  before  her  at  Balmoral.  No  one  of  her 
subjects  had  passed  through  so  many  sorrows. 
She  bore  the  burden  of  a  great  Empire,  she  also 
carried  the  weight  of  her  own  personal  griefs. 
Without  the  consolation  of  our  Holy  Faith  she 
would  have  been  unable  to  bear  up  as  bravely  as 
she  did  under  the  many  trials  that  she  was  called 
upon  to  endure,  and  it  was  with  unfeigned  gratitude 
to  the  author  that  she  welcomed  those  meditations 
of  Dr.  Matheson's  which  had  been  placed  in  her 
hand  by  the  Bishop  of  Ripon,  and  in  which  she 
found  the  consolation  that  her  soul  needed.  It 
was  in  October  of  1885  that  Dr.  Matheson  was 
summoned  to  Balmoral,  and  in  a  letter  to  his  friend 
Mr.  Stevenson  he  gives  an  interesting  account  of 
the  occasion : 

Manse,  Innellan, 
October  2,1  i  1885. 

My  dear  Stevenson, — My  visit  to  Crathie  has  been 
a  tremendous  success,  though  I  write  with  considerable 
reserve  as  I  should  much  prefer  to  have  stated  the  facts 
orally.  The  Queen  sent  word  after  the  sermon  that  she 
was  immensely  delighted  with  the  preaching  and  the 
prayers,  the  word  "  immensely "  being  underlined.  She 
stated  through  Lady  Ely,  who  gives  her  orders,  that  she 
desired  me  to  be  presented  to  her  and  to  the  Royal  Family 


LAST  YEARS   AT   INNELLAN     217 

at  a  quarter-past  ten  in  the  evening,  and  that  as  I  was 
unable  to  see  her  with  the  eye  she  and  the  Royal  Family 
would  shake  hands  with  me.  She  has  presented  me  with 
a  little  bust  of  herself,  and  she  has  requested  that  the 
sermon  should  be  printed  for  private  circulation  and  sent 
to  her  that  she  may  have  the  thought  beside  her.  She 
says  that  she  never  understood  the  subject  before.  She 
requested  that  I  would  send  her  a  letter  in  my  own  hand ; 
this,  however,  I  have  declined  to  do.  When  I  came  into 
the  room  she  came  forward,  took  my  hand,  saying,  How  I 
admired  your  sermon,  most  beautiful  and  most  interesting. 
She  asked  all  manner  of  questions  regarding  Innellan,  its 
situation,  population,  etc.  I  afterwards  conversed  in  turn 
with  the  Duke  of  Connaught,  the  Duchess  of  Connaught, 
and  the  Princess  Beatrice.  These  are  all  the  facts  which 
I  can  put  on  paper,  but  they  will  serve  to  show  you  that  I 
have  received  an  almost  unprecedented  distinction.  I  may 
say  that  among  the  Royal  Household  there  are  many 
applications  for  a  copy  of  the  sermon,  which  is  now  being 
printed. — Believe  me,  yours  very  sincerely, 

G.  Matheson. 

The  sermon  v^hich  he  preached  on  the  occasion 
v^as  on  *'  The  Patience  of  Job,"  from  the  v^ell-knov^n 
text  James  v.  2.  It  is  a  most  beautiful  sermon, 
and  one  on  reading  it  can  well  understand  how  it 
appealed  so  strongly  to  his  Royal  hearers.  The 
point  of  the  discourse  is  the  thought,  fresh  and 
original,  that  the  patience  of  Job  consisted  in  his 
endurance  of  the  repeated  and  overwhelming 
calamities  that  befell  him,  without  asking,  Why? 
It  was  only  when  his  would-be  friends  endeavoured 
to  trace  the  dealings  of  Providence,  and  to  find  the 
motive  of  God's  anger  in  Job's  transgressions,  that 
he  cried  out.  But  the  Patriarch's  outburst,  the 
preacher  declared,  in  place  of  being  a  denial  was 


218     LAST   YEARS   AT   INNELLAN 

only  an  additional  proof  of  his  patience,  for  It 
was  an  outburst,  not  against  his  calamities  or 
against  Him  under  whose  hand  they  befell  him,  but 
against  those  who  set  themselves  as  judges  over 
man  and  his  Maker.  This  standing  with  an  un- 
covered head  before  the  mystery  of  life  and  saying 
nothing,  this  acceptance  of  suffering  which  could 
not  be  explained  without  a  murmur,  this  undying 
faith  in  God  in  the  midst  of  troubles  whose  source 
and  whose  meaning  were  a  mystery,  was  an 
exhibition  of  patience  which  was  once  paralleled 
only  in  the  history  of  the  world — In  the  death  of 
the  Son  of  Man  on  Calvary.  The  Patriarch's 
cry  of  "Though  He  slay  me  yet  will  I  trust 
in  Him "  was  an  anticipation  of  the  Saviour's 
prayer,  ''If  It  be  Thy  will  let  this  cup  pass 
from  Me,  yet  not  My  will  but  Thine  be  done." 
'*  Stand,  then,  where  Job  stood,"  concluded  the 
preacher, 

under  the  shadow  of  Gethsemane,  side  by  side  with 
the  Son  of  Man.  Keep  green  thy  love  with  His  love. 
For  remember  that,  after  all,  the  patience  of  Job  is  the 
patience  of  hope.  Wherever  love  is,  there  is  no  despair. 
There  is  a  withered  peace,  a  stoic  peace,  a  peace  of  autumn 
leaves ;  a  peace  where  rustling  ceases,  not  because  the 
winds  have  lost  their  power  but  because  the  life  has  lost 
its  sap.  That  is  not  the  patience  of  hope ;  it  is  the 
patience  of  despair.  But  if  love  be  there, — His  love  that 
under  the  shadow  could  keep  the  heart  undimmed,  that 
under  the  wintry  sky  could  preserve  the  summer  foliage 
green, — then  come  what  may,  though  cloud  rise  on  cloud, 
and  night  come  down  without  a  star,  already  above  the 
heights  of  Calvary  there  shall  gleam  the  sunlit  peaks  of 
Olivet,  and  beyond  the  vale  of  death  shall  shine  the  glory 


LAST   YEARS   AT   INNELLAN     219 

of  the  resurrection  day.  Love  is  the  prophecy  that  the 
night  is  not  eternal,  and  he  that  Hstens  to  love  amid  the 
cold  hears  already  the  song  of  the  swallow  that  tells  that 
summer  is  nigh,  for  the  patience  of  Job  is  the  patience  of 
hope. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE   EDINBURGH   MINISTRY 

A  DEVOTED  member  of  the  Parish  Church  of 
Innellan  expressed  the  fear,  when  in  1883  Dr. 
Matheson  received  a  presentation  from  his  con- 
gregation, that  it  was  fated  he  should  not  remain 
long  among  them.  As  anticipations  often  arise 
from  contradictories,  she  said  that  this  fear  was 
caused  by  Dr.  Matheson's  own  words,  when  he 
declared  that  he  would  continue  for  the  remainder 
of  his  life  as  their  minister.  He  no  doubt  at  the 
time  believed  this.  He  had  never  sought  a 
change.  He  was  contented  and  happy  in  his 
work.  He  felt  that  the  sphere  in  which  Pro- 
vidence had  placed  him  was  perhaps  the  one  above 
all  others  specially  suited  for  him.  He  might  have 
been  in  an  equally  easy  charge  in  some  country 
district,  but  he  would  have  been  without  the 
stimulus  which  came  from  the  inroad  of  summer 
visitors,  who  latterly  were  drawn  from  every  part 
of  the  United  Kingdom.  He  was  within  easy 
access  of  the  social  life  and  literary  opportunities 

of    Glasgow,    with    its    University    and    libraries. 

220 


THE   EDINBURGH   MINISTRY     221 

Besides,  he  belonged  to  the  West  of  Scotland,  and 
he  felt  thoroughly  at  home  among  Its  people.  In 
a  true  sense  he  was  prophet,  priest,  and  king  of  his 
parish,  and  he  ruled  by  the  spirit  of  sacrifice,  which 
formed  the  special  note  of  his  preaching  and  his 
life.  He  toiled  incessantly  in  the  interests  of  his 
congregation  and  of  the  larger  public  who  enjoyed 
his  writings,  and  as  he  never  went  beyond  his 
province,  so  no  one  dreamed  of  invading  his.  His 
life  indeed  at  Innellan  was  one  of  pleasantness  and 
peace. 

It  cannot  be  said,  however,  that  he  had  no 
visions  of  a  larger  field  on  which  he  might  play  his 
part.  He  had  become  conscious  of  his  power  and 
his  influence,  and,  having  a  message,  he  naturally 
longed  to  have  it  delivered  to  those  who,  in  their 
turn,  might  spread  it  far  and  near.  Had  he  been 
an  author  only,  he  might  have  contented  himself 
with  the  platform  which  Innellan  supplied.  But 
he  was  a  man  of  action  as  well.  He  rejoiced  in 
coming  into  contact  with  other  minds,  in  ex- 
changing ideas,  in  discussing  questions  of  far- 
reaching  interest,  in  seeing  his  views  carried  out 
into  practice ;  above  all,  he  was  a  born  preacher, 
whose  chief  joy  was  in  communicating  his 
thoughts  by  the  power  of  his  eloquence  to  the 
minds  of  men,  and  moving  their  hearts  by  his 
fervid  appeals.  No  one  was  more  susceptible  to 
the  influence  of  numbers.  He  could y^^/ a  crowd, 
and  a  large  congregation  drew  from  him  his  very 
best.     His  childlike  nature  revelled  in  the  play  of 


222     THE   EDINBURGH   MINISTRY 

thoughts  and  words  which  were  rendered  possible 
by  mingling  with  masses  of  people  ;  and  it  was 
only  in  some  great  centre  of  population  where  the 
whole  man  could  find  fit  expression. 

Those  who  knew  him,  therefore,  were  not 
altogether  surprised  when  they  heard  that  he  was 
not  unlikely  to  accept  the  call  which  was  to  be  pre- 
sented to  him  from  a  large  Edinburgh  congregation. 
The  movement  was  in  some  respects  a  surprise. 
It  came  upon  all  who  were  concerned  in  it  as  a 
thief  in  the  night.  Even  those  from  whom  it 
issued  had  never  meditated  calling  Dr.  Matheson, 
until  by  accident  almost  it  was  told  them  that  he 
might  not  altogether  refuse  their  overtures.  The 
reason,  probably,  why  so  many  congregations,  to 
whom  Dr.  Matheson  would  have  made  a  most 
acceptable  minister,  never  thought  of  inviting  him, 
was  simply  because  it  never  dawned  upon  them 
that  he  would  be  willing  to  accept  a  call.  They 
had  the  impression  that  he  was  so  contented  at 
Innellan  that  no  inducement  whatever  could 
tempt  him  to  leave  it.  There  was  probably 
another  reason.  They  felt  that  his  blindness  would 
be  a  hindrance  to  him  in  the  discharge  of  the 
pastoral  duties  of  a  large  congregation.  There 
can  be  no  doubt,  however,  that  if  he  had  been  a 
minister  in  the  Church  of  England  he  would  have 
found  his  proper  sphere  long  before.  In  the 
Church  of  Scotland,  which  is  Presbyterian,  there 
are  no  posts  for  preachers.  The  minister  of  a 
charge   must    undertake   all    its   duties,    of    which 


THE   EDINBURGH   MINISTRY     223 

preaching  is  only  one  ;  and  though  he  should  have 
the  eloquence  of  Chrysostom,  if  he  fails  in  the 
minor  tasks  he,  in  the  opinion  of  some,  has  failed 
altogether.  In  the  Church  of  England  Dr. 
Matheson  would  have  been  appointed  a  Canon  in 
St.  Paul's  Cathedral,  and  at  Lent  or  at  Easter  he 
would  have  attracted  great  congregations.  When 
his  term  of  service  there  had  expired,  he  would 
have  retired  to  his  country  living,  where  he  would 
have  written  his  books  and  prepared  himself  in 
quietness  for  his  next  term  of  office. 

There  is  one  kind  of  congregation  in  the  Church 
of  Scotland  which,  it  seems  to  me,  would  have 
suited  Dr.  Matheson.  A  suburban  charge  in 
connection  with  which  there  would  have  been  a 
minimum  of  congregational  and  parochial  work, 
and  centrally  enough  situated  to  command  a  large 
body  of  hearers  every  Sunday,  would  have  been  a 
fit  sphere  for  him.  I  remember  on  one  occasion 
asking  a  leading  member  of  such  a  church  why  it 
was  when  a  vacancy  had  occurred,  the  members 
did  not  think  of  giving  a  call  to  Dr.  Matheson. 
He  said,  ''Would  he  have  come.^^"  I  replied  that 
I  thought  he  would.  "Well,"  he  exclaimed,  "if 
that  had  occurred  to  us  we  would  only  have  been 
too  proud  to  have  had  him  as  our  minister."  But 
it  was  ordered  that  his  translation  from  Innellan 
should  be  to  a  large  congregation,  in  which  the 
demands  upon  him  as  a  pastor  were  greater  than 
as  a  preacher.  The  sequel  will  show  the  wisdom 
of  the  step  which  he  was  now  meditating.     It  was 


224    THE   EDINBURGH   MINISTRY 

a  difficult  choice.  No  one,  however,  should  regret 
that  he  made  it.  If  it  was  put  in  his  way  by  a 
Higher  Hand  for  the  purpose  of  testing  to  the 
very  fullest  his  Christian  heroism,  George  Mathe- 
son  did  not  fail.  His  spirit  was  ever  willing.  The 
victory  which  he  achieved  over  the  circumstances 
of  his  new  lot  can  only  be  paralleled  by  his  triumph 
over  the  catastrophe  of  his  early  youth.  His  in- 
domitable courage  enabled  him  to  prevail  in  both 
instances,  and  he  only  yielded  when  his  physical 
frame  was  unable  any  longer  to  endure  the  strain. 

There  is  a  touch  of  romance  about  his  call  to 
St.  Bernard's,  Edinburgh.  The  members  of  that 
church  had  failed  to  elect  a  minister  within  the 
period  of  six  months,  which  the  law  of  the  Church 
allowed.  The  right  of  appointment  had  fallen  into 
the  hands  of  the  Presbytery,  but,  as  is  usual  in  such 
cases,  the  Presbytery  was  willing  to  receive  sugges- 
tions from  the  congregation  as  to  whom  they  would 
like  to  be  elected  to  the  charge.  The  convener  of 
the  congregational  committee  was  Dr.  Currie,  the 
Rector  of  the  Normal  School  in  connection  with  the 
Church  of  Scotland.  It  chanced  that  some  seven 
or  eight  years  previously  he  had  been  on  a  visit  to 
Innellan,  and  on  the  Sunday  he  went  to  hear  Dr. 
Matheson.  It  was  a  winter's  day,  and  fierce  gusts 
of  wind  were  driving  the  rain  against  the  windows 
of  the  little  kirk.  Dr.  Matheson  preached  to  a 
handful  of  worshippers.  He  was  disappointed  at 
the  meagre  attendance,  for  the  sermon  which  he 
had  prepared  was  a   specially  good   one.     There 


THE   EDINBURGH   MINISTRY     225 

was,  however,  one  stranger  in  the  congregation ;  that 
stranger  was  Dr.  Currie,  and  the  eloquent  words  of 
the  preacher  made  a  deep  impression  upon  him. 
When,  therefore,  St.  Bernard's  people  found  them- 
selves in  their  difficulty,  the  name  of  Dr.  Matheson 
at  once  occurred  to  the  convener's  mind.  He 
remembered  his  ability  in  the  pulpit,  he  knew  his 
power  as  an  author,  and  he  felt  that  he  was  the 
man  of  all  others  who  should  be  appointed  to 
the  charge.  The  following  letter  from  Dr.  Currie 
to  a  member  of  the   congregation    tells    how  the 

matter  came  about : — 

Shandon  Hydropathic, 
January  26,  1886. 

You  may  be  interested  to  hear  the  sequel  of  our 
proceedings,  and  the  help  you  gave  us  in  our  earlier  stages 
fairly  entitles  you  to  know.  I  must  say  I  have  found  the 
business  not  a  little  anxious  and  engrossing.  At  the  time 
that  I  wrote  you,  we  were  making  special  inquiry  about 
three  men,  but  a  meteor  came  across  our  sky  in  the 
person  of  a  minister  whom  you  will  know  very  well  by 
name  and  reputation  at  any  rate.  I  mean  Dr.  George 
Matheson  of  Innellan.  It  came  upon  us  as  a  sort  of 
revelation  that  he  would  be  willing  to  change,  and  from 
the  moment  that  idea  was  seriously  borne  in  upon  us  it 
has  carried  us  captive.  Of  course  there  were  great 
difficulties  to  be  considered  in  respect  to  how  a  blind 
clergyman  could  carry  on  our  parish  work.  We  have 
faced  these,  and,  with  the  information  we  have  been  able 
to  get  of  him,  we  resolved  at  our  committee  meeting  that 
night  to  recommend  him  to  the  congregation.  He 
preached  among  us  on  Sunday  last,  forenoon  and  after- 
noon, and  created  an  enthusiasm  which  will  probably  carry 
him  through  the  ordeal  of  a  congregational  election. 
Personally,  I  go  for  him  heart  and  soul,  for  the  sake  of 
the  young  people  of  the  church  mainly,  who  cannot  resist 
his  manly  eloquence.     I  think  he  will  be  a  power  in  an 

15 


226     THE  EDINBURGH  MINISTRY 

Edinburgh  pulpit ;  one  of  those  men  who  appear  at 
intervals  to  shake  up  our  dulness,  and  to  compel  the 
attention  of  the  listless  and  the  cynic.  It  is  no  disparage- 
ment to  our  other  candidates,  and  I  trust  it  will  not 
appear  to  them  to  be  any,  that  the  claims  of  such  a  man 
should  be  preferred.  Of  course  there  is  sometimes  a  slip 
between  the  cup  and  the  lip,  but  from  what  passed  at  our 
long  interview  with  him  in  Glasgow  last  week,  and  also 
on  Sunday  last,  I  expect  that  our  courtship  will  end  in  a 
union. 

The  meeting  of  the  congregation  of  St. 
Bernard's,  held  for  the  purpose  of  hearing  the 
committees  report,  took  place  on  the  evening  of 
February  9,  1886,  and  resulted  in  a  unanimous 
call  to  Dr.  Matheson.  The  convener,  in  moving 
the  adoption  of  the  report,  expressed  the  belief 
that  Dr.  Matheson  if  appointed  would  keep  St. 
Bernard's  as  one  of  the  high  places  of  spiritual 
teaching  In  the  city  ;  and  he  moved  that  the 
Presbytery  be  petitioned  to  appoint  him  to  be  their 
minister.  The  die  had  now  been  cast,  and  the 
usual  formalities  took  place  for  the  translation  of 
Dr.  Matheson  to  his  new  charge.  One  of  these 
was  the  severlnor  of  the  ties  that  bound  him  to  his 
church  and  congregation  at  Innellan.  It  was  not 
an  easy  matter  for  pastor  and  people  to  part  with 
each  other ;  they  both  felt  the  wrench  deeply. 
It  was  only  three  years  since  they  had  In  a  sense 
renewed  their  union  and  exchanged  gifts — tangible 
tokens  of  affection  on  their  part,  words  of  the 
profoundest  gratitude  on  his.  But  the  unexpected 
had  happened,  and  the  hour  had  approached  when 
they  must  part.     The  congregation,  however,  were 


THE   EDINBURGH   MINISTRY     227 

determined  to  give  a  final  proof  of  their  admiration, 
so  one  evening,  the  13th  of  April,  they  gathered 
in  full  numbers  in  the  Parish  Church,  and  presented 
Dr.  Matheson  and  his  sister  with  handsome  gifts. 
Dr.  Matheson,  in  acknowledging  the  presentation, 
said : 

This  has  been  for  me  one  of  the  most  trying — I  should 
say  the  most  trying — day  in  my  life.  I  have  had  this  day 
to  undergo  the  terrible  process  of  being  loosened  from 
my  charge.  I  have  been  loosened  from  my  charge  this 
day  by  the  Presbytery  of  Dunoon,  and  now  I  am  reminded 
this  night  that  I  am  being  loosened  from  my  church. 
I  told  the  Presbytery  of  Dunoon  to-day  that  I  had 
experienced  both  their  binding  and  loosening  power. 
I  had  experienced  their  power  of  binding  nearly  twenty 
years  ago,  when  they  ordained  me  to  this  ministry ;  and 
I  experienced  their  loosening  power  to-day,  when  they 
gave  me  permission  to  go  to  Edinburgh.  I  told  the 
Presbytery,  and  I  repeat  it  now,  that  the  power  of 
loosening  was  the  more  terrible  of  the  two.  On  my 
ordination  to  this  parish  I  felt  great  trepidation  and 
fear,  but  I  feel  infinitely  more  now  at  the  time  of  my 
being  loosened  from  it;  and  you  have  revived  in  all  its 
force  this  sad  feeling  by  giving  us — my  sister  and  myself— 
this  double  presentation.  You  have  reminded  me  by  a 
tangible  token  that  no  loosening  power  can  ever  unbind 
those  ties — those  indelible  ties — of  affection  that  subsist 
between  us.  I  have  to  return  you  my  most  sincere  thanks 
for  this  handsome  present.  The  timepiece  will  be  much 
prized  by  me,  and  it  will  always  remind  me  of  those 
eighteen  years  I  have  spent  among  you. 

Eighteen  years  ago  I  came  to  you  as  an  old  man, 
but  now  I  am  leaving  you  as  a  young  man.  This  may 
seem  a  wondrous  paradox,  but  I  speak  to  you  in  the 
language  of  the  Spirit,  not  of  the  flesh.  I  came  to  you 
in  those  days  very  much  afraid,  rankled  in  mind,  perturbed, 
and  disturbed,  for  I  knew  not  the  way  before  me.  I  was 
ignorant  then  how  the  duties  of  this  parish  ought  to  be 


228     THE   EDINBURGH   MINISTRY 

performed;  you  have  taught  me.  I  have  renewed  my 
youth ;  I  cannot  express  myself  better  than  to  say  I 
have  grown  younger.  Do  you  know,  I  think  the  ultimate 
glory  of  us  all  is  to  grow  young.  I  owe  to  you  a  debt 
of  gratitude  which  I  can  never  repay.  On  behalf  of  my 
sister,  I  ask  to  be  allowed  to  say  that  the  work  that 
she  has  done  for  this  place  has  been,  from  beginning 
to  end,  a  labour  of  love.  I  feel  sure  that  the  lessons 
which,  during  these  years,  she  has  learned,  must  have 
rekindled  her  youth  and  made  her  stronger  to  continue 
the  same  work  in  the  new  sphere  to  which  she  is  going. 
In  her  name  I  thank  you  deeply  and  abundantly  for 
this  warm  token  of  your  appreciation  and  your  regard,  and 
I  may  say — what  she  would  have  said  had  she  been  per- 
mitted to  speak — that  she  will  always  cherish  this  gift 
as  a  memorial  of  days  which  have  been  to  her  days  of 
pleasantness  and  of  peace. 

Dr.  Matheson  was  inducted  to  his  nev^  charge 
on  May  12,  1886,  and  on  the  following  Sunday 
he  began  his  ministry  of  thirteen  years  in  St. 
Bernard's  Parish  Church,  Edinburgh;  one  of  the 
richest  and  most  brilliant  ministries  of  which  the 
Church  of  Scotland  bears  record.  He  had  now 
found  his  true  position,  it  might  be  thought,  for 
was  he  not  the  minister  of  one  of  the  largest  con- 
gregations in  the  capital  of  Scotland  ?  Edinburgh 
has  always  been  regarded  as  the  city  of  light  and 
leading  in  the  northern  half  of  the  United  Kingdom. 
It  was  the  home  of  the  Scottish  kings  ;  in  it  sat 
the  Parliament,  and  it  still  glories  in  its  Law  Courts. 
Its  historic  memories  are  romantic ;  it  witnessed 
some  of  the  most  stirring  events  in  the  national 
history ;  and  from  it  issued  the  commands  that 
turned    the    course    of  affairs.      Its    very    situation 


THE   EDINBURGH   MINISTRY     229 

is  inspiring,  and  its  picturesque  beauty  draws  to 
it  visitors  from  every  part  of  the  world.  Its 
ecclesiastical  and  literary  associations,  especially 
from  the  Reformation  downwards,  are  notable.  It 
was  the  city  of  John  Knox,  of  Principal  Robertson, 
and  of  Thomas  Chalmers ;  and  also  of  David 
Hume,  Walter  Scott,  and  Thomas  Carlyle. 
Hundreds  of  other  names  of  lesser  lustre  illumin- 
ate its  history,  and  if  there  was  one  place  more 
than  another  in  which  a  man  of  Matheson's  genius 
should  find  a  fit  sphere  it  ought  surely  to  have 
been  Edinburgh. 

There  is  no  doubt  but  what  he  felt  the 
stimulatinof  influences  of  his  new  surroundino-s. 
He  began  his  ministry  in  St.  Bernard's  in  the 
full  vigour  of  a  strong  manhood.  His  bodily 
strength  was  unimpaired,  his  natural  force  was 
unabated.  He  was  on  the  crest  of  his  fame,  and 
he  felt  himself  possessed  of  inexhaustible  resources. 
He  was  master  of  ancient  and  modern  thought ; 
he  had  breasted  the  waves  of  speculation ;  he  had 
met  and  turned  the  edge  of  the  most  recent 
attacks  on  what  was  fundamental  in  the  Christian 
Faith.  His  daily  reading  and  profound  study  of 
the  Bible  had  given  him  a  knowledge  of  its  mean- 
ing and  spirit  which  enabled  him  to  interpret  it  in 
the  light  of  the  day,  and  to  apply  its  riches  to  the 
needs  of  the  hour.  His  acquaintance  with  science 
and  with  literature,  ancient  and  modern,  native 
and  foreign,  made  him  a  man  of  the  broadest 
culture;  and  his  supreme  intellectual  ability,  lit  up 


230     THE   EDINBURGH   MINISTRY 

by  flashes  of  genius,  gave  him  a  commanding 
position  among  the  most  capable  and  the  most 
learned.  Add  to  these  his  rare  oratorical  gifts, 
his  charm  of  style,  and  above  all  his  sincere, 
warm-hearted  nature,  and  we  have  surely  a  preacher 
the  like  of  whom  it  is  not  the  fortune  of  every 
generation  or  of  every  country  to  possess. 

Edinburgh  responded  to  the  unique  personality 
that  it  now  found  in  its  midst.  St.  Bernard's 
Church  became  full  to  overflowing,  and  Sunday 
after  Sunday  Dr.  Matheson  poured  forth  a  stream 
of  eloquence  that  delighted,  charmed,  and  inspired 
the  large  audiences  that  came  to  hear  him.  "  Dr. 
Matheson's  fame  as  a  preacher,"  writes  one  who 
had  the  closest  personal  and  official  connection 
with  him  in  St.  Bernard's,  "  was  so  great,  that 
every  seat  was  occupied  at  the  morning  service, 
and  many  found  only  standing  room  ;  in  fact,  even 
seat-holders  had  to  attend  punctually  or  run  the 
risk  of  being  temporarily  dispossessed  of  their 
pews."  But  the  most  striking  compliment  to  his 
popularity  and  power  was  the  character  of  his 
hearers.  "  His  audience,"  continues  the  same 
friend,  '*  was  a  mixed  one,  drawn  from  all  ranks 
and  classes  of  society  :  clergymen,  leading  members 
of  the  Bar,  University  professors,  scholars  and 
scientists,  artisans  and  workmen ;  and  whilst  he 
himself  never  despised  those  occupying  good 
social  positions,  his  democratic  spirit  seemed 
intensely  gratified  by  the  fact  that  the  common 
people   heard   him   gladly.     Possessed    of  a  well- 


THE   EDINBURGH   MINISTRY     231 

modulated  and  powerful  voice,  he  readily  gained 
a  favourable  hearing  from  every  audience  ;  and  if 
some  of  his  propositions  were  startling  on  their 
first  statement,  no  one  with  an  open  mind  left 
without  being  convinced  that  every  word  was 
proved." 

His  preaching  had  developed  since  the  old 
Innellan  days.  His  own  character  had  grown  and 
his  nature  had  become  enriched.  In  particular 
his  sense  of  humour  and  frank  outspokenness  had 
become  a  leading  trait  both  of  his  conversation  and 
of  his  preaching.  He  restrained  himself  in  writing, 
but  when,  on  the  spur  of  the  moment,  he  had,  in 
the  pulpit,  to  express  his  present  thoughts,  and 
being  so  engrossed  in  his  subject  as  to  be  altogether 
unconcerned  about  what  was  held  to  be  proper, 
or  respected  as  conventional,  he  frequently  gave 
utterance  to  what  surprised  many  and  startled  not 
a  few.  There  were  two  classes  of  hearers  who 
found  in  Dr.  Matheson's  preaching  the  word  that 
their  souls  needed.  These  were  the  students  of 
Edinburgh,  who  attended  his  church  in  large 
numbers,  and  those  whose  faith  was  distressed — 
men  who  had  given  up  attending  church,  and  who 
perchance  had  ceased  to  believe  in  God.  It  was 
surely  a  Divine  blessing  to  Edinburgh  that  it  had 
in  its  midst  a  preacher  who  could  lay  his  restrain- 
ing hand  on  both  these  classes,  who  could  lead 
the  wayward  thought  of  ingenuous  youth  into  the 
path  of  true  knowledge,  and  guide  the  wandering 
mind  of  the  doubter  into  the  way  everlasting.      I 


232     THE   EDINBURGH   MINISTRY 

have  received  two  contributions,  one  from  each  of 
these  classes.  Let  the  student  speak  first.  The 
Rev.  Sydney  Smith,  Parish  Minister  of  Keith,  who 
attended  the  classes  in  Edinburgh  University  during 
Matheson's  ministry  in  St.  Bernard's,  writes  as 
follows  : 

To  write  of  Dr.  Matheson  as  a  preacher  is  for  me  to 
relive  some  almost  ecstatic  moments  of  my  life.  Again 
and  again  as  I  heard  him,  it  is  but  little  exaggeration  to 
say  that  I  seemed  as  it  were  caught  up  into  the  seventh 
heaven,  whether  in  the  body  or  out  of  the  body  I  could 
hardly  tell.  It  was  often  in  a  kind  of  bewilderment  that 
I  left  the  church.  The  value  of  every  ordinary  sensation 
was  lowered,  and  I  was  alone  with  the  great  thoughts  and 
profound  emotions  which  the  preacher  had  stirred. 

Sometimes  the  effect  of  the  whole  was  pathetically 
modified.  One  recalls  little  incidents,  half  touching,  half 
amusing,  but  to  me  more  touching  than  amusing,  drawing 
one  into  tenderer  sympathy  with  the  preacher,  heightening 
the  impression  made  in  so  far  as  they  reminded  one 
forcibly  of  the  victory  which  he  had  won  in  his  own 
life. 

For  youth,  and  especially  youth  as  represented  at  the 
universities,  the  preaching  of  Dr.  Matheson  had  peculiar 
charm.  It  was  no  uncommon  thing,  I  remember,  for  a 
student  of  any  denomination  on  a  Sunday  morning  or 
afternoon  to  look  up  another  student  and  suggest  a  visit 
to  St.  Bernard's.  Nor  is  it  very  hard  to  understand 
wherein  for  the  student-mind  the  attractiveness  of  Dr. 
Matheson's  sermons  lay.  His  boldness  of  interpretation 
would  not  be  without  appeal  to  the  young  man's  sense 
of  the  heroic.  The  student  as  a  rule  is  little  of  a  tradi- 
tionalist, and  the  way  in  which  Dr.  Matheson  was  wont 
to  set  aside  time-honoured  exegesis  harmonised  with  the 
radical  or  revolutionary  strain  in  the  student's  nature. 
"  I  have  been  through  all  the  commentators "  was  a 
sentence  with  which  he  regularly  introduced  his  own 
exposition.     Then    Dr.    Matheson    showed   respect,   even 


THE   EDINBURGH   MINISTRY     233 

though  it  might  be  only  the  respect  of  recognition,  to 
certain  great  names  in  the  scientific  and  philosophic  world. 
"  Herbert  Spencer  would  call  it  the  vibration  of  the  ether  ; 
I  would  call  it  the  heaving  breast  of  God,"  is  an  inter- 
jection which  comes  back  to  me.  Sometimes  he  went 
further.  It  was  the  annual  sermon,  if  I  remember  aright, 
of  the  Primitive  Methodist  Conference,  which  was  being 
held  that  year  in  Edinburgh.  The  place  of  meeting  was 
what  is  now  the  United  Free  Church  Assembly  Hall. 
The  preacher's  text  was,  "  Who  are  these  that  are  arrayed 
in  white  robes  ?  "  He  portrayed  heaven  as  a  vast  concert 
hall,  and  asked  his  audience  to  take  a  sweeping  glance 
over  it.  "  Who  are  these  in  the  centre,  '  before  the 
throne'?"  For  answer  he  quoted  part  of  the  text — 
"  These  are  they,"  etc.  "  Who  are  these,  and  these,  and 
these  ? "  He  replied  by  mentioning  different  classes  of 
Christians.  Then  he  asked,  "  Who  is  that  man  at  the 
very  back  of  the  hall,  the  man  with  the  pale  thoughtful 
face?  That  is  Spinoza.  He  has  only  got  an  angle  of 
the  truth,  but  he  is  working  his  way  to  the  front,  to  the 
centre."  And  from  all  parts  of  the  hall  there  came  cries 
of  "  Hallelujah  !"  and  "  Help  him.  Lord  ;  help  him.  Lord." 
Then  Dr.  Matheson  delighted  in  the  use  of  biological 
terms  to  express  facts  of  the  spiritual  world.  Just  as 
Professor  Drummond  in  his  addresses  to  students  used  to 
speak  of  sin  as  a  microbe,  so  Dr.  Matheson  would  describe 
Peter's  words,  "  Be  it  far  from  Thee,  Lord,"  or  the  wish  of 
the  multitude  to  make  our  Lord  an  earthly  king,  as 
"  attempts  to  arrest  His  development."  Characteristic  too 
of  the  preacher,  and  attractive  to  the  student  because  of 
the  contrast  suggested  to  his  daily  fare,  were  the  bold 
metaphors,  the  illustrations  drawn  from  present-day  fiction, 
the  apparent  spontaneity  of  much  of  the  thinking,  the 
wealth  and  effortlessness  of  language,  the  delight  of  the 
preacher  in  his  self-expression,  the  constant  element  of 
surprise,  and  the  magnetic  glow  which  pervaded  the 
whole.  One  of  his  daring  and  unusual  figures  comes  back 
to  me  as  I  write.  The  context  I  have  forgotten,  and  I 
cannot  well  explain  the  impression  made,  but  I  can 
remember  the  emotion  which  quietly  surged  through  the 


234     THE   EDINBURGH    MINISTRY 

audience,  causing  them  literally  to  sway  from  side  to  side 
as  they  heard  the  words.  The  preacher  was  speaking  of 
Robert  Burns.  "  They  brought  the  bard  up  to  Edinburgh," 
he  said,  "  and  he  wouldn't  sing,  and  they  had  to  take  him 
back  again." 

There  is  an  impression  abroad  that  Dr.  Matheson's 
preaching  was  to  some  extent  deficient  in  qualities  which 
are  supreme  conditions  of  appeal — lucidity  and  ethical 
force.  So  far  from  this  being  the  case,  almost  every 
sermon  I  heard  was  a  branching  system  of  thought,  and 
the  preacher's  emphasis  on  the  sacrificial  love  of  the 
Cross  and  the  glory  of  humanitarian  service  was  felt  by 
many  of  us  to  be  a  strong  moral  influence  in  our  lives. 
Yet  it  is  not  difficult  to  understand  how  numbers  of 
people  have  thought  otherwise.  When  one  recalls  how 
often  the  unity  of  the  sermon  was  more  imaginative  than 
logical,  how  sometimes  the  discourse  was  formally  little 
more  than  the  elaboration  of  a  single  figure,  one  can  under- 
stand how  for  many  the  sense  of  all  objective  truth  or  rela- 
tion to  the  real  world  might  be  lost,  the  cord  of  interest 
snapped,  and  the  impression  of  the  whole  destroyed. 
George  Meredith  has  said  somewhere  that  the  English 
mind  does  not  take  kindly  to  metaphor.  It  is  even  more 
true  one  would  think  of  the  Scottish  mind. 

For  the  rest,  while  it  may  be  maintained  that  Dr. 
Matheson's  analyses  of  Bible  characters,  for  example,  were 
highly  speculative,  and  the  range  within  which  many  of 
the  truths  he  discovered  appeared  true  was  very  limited, 
yet  if,  as  Professor  Flint  once  said,  the  essence  of  the 
Gospel  is  God's  love  to  man,  and  if  the  supreme  dynamic 
is  the  answering  love  of  the  soul,  there  were  few  of  Dr. 
Matheson's  sermons  without  an  element  of  evangelical 
and  practical  power. 

The  other,  who  had  wandered  from  church  to 
church,  as  he  himself  records,  in  search  of  an  abid- 
ing place  for  his  soul,  chanced  to  alight  at  last  on 
St.  Bernard's.  He  there  found  what  he  needed. 
Matheson's    voice    appeased    his    fears,    and    his 


THE   EDINBURGH   MINISTRY     235 

presentation  of  Divine  truth  won  the  doubting 
disciple  for  the  Kingdom.  The  writer,  the  Rev.  T. 
R.  Barnett,  is  now  an  honoured  minister  of  the 
Christian  Church — 

It  must  have  been  some  time  in  the  year  1890  that 
I  first  began  to  attend  the  morning  service  at  St.  Bernard's 
in  Edinburgh.  I  was  a  most  diligent  and  at  the  same 
time  a  most  unorthodox  church-goer,  and  during  these 
years  I  must  have  visited  most  of  the  better  known 
churches  in  Edinburgh — Presbyterians  of  all  denomina- 
tions, Episcopalians  High  and  Low,  Roman  Catholics  and 
Jesuits ;  seeking  sound  doctrine  in  the  first,  music  and 
aesthetics  in  the  second,  and  information  at  first  hand 
with  a  variety  of  sensations  in  the  third. 

But  St.  Bernard's  saw  me  oftener  than  any  other 
church  in  the  city.  For  here  there  was  something 
which  drew  me  irresistibly  back  again  and  again.  I  now 
know  that  it  was  the  inspiration  of  the  preacher's  per- 
sonality. How  well  I  remember  the  long  walk  from 
Merchiston  to  St.  Bernard's  on  the  clear,  sharp  winter 
mornings,  or  on  dismal,  drippy  days  when  even  the  rain 
did  not  deter  me !  And  the  expectations  were  never 
disappointed.  If  the  day  was  bright,  the  preacher  used 
the  very  sunshine  to  illustrate  the  Eternal  Light ;  if  the 
day  was  depressing,  he  used  the  gloom  to  illustrate  the 
clouds  and  darkness  of  experience,  on  which  he  always 
managed,  somehow,  to  pour  a  radiance  of  Divine  Mercy. 

Dr.  Matheson's  first  prayer  was  often  the  finest  part 
of  the  service.  And  what  a  prayer  it  was !  A  lifting 
up  of  the  heart  and  upraising  of  the  spirit,  a  reaching  out 
after  God,  an  outpouring  of  the  soul,  like  the  rapturous 
song  of  the  lark,  mounting  higher  and  higher  into  the 
blue,  to  find  in  the  limitless  skies  the  satisfaction  of  its 
whole  nature.  I  confess  that  it  was  this  first  prayer  that 
often  lifted  us  up  into  the  Mystic  Presence  more  than 
any  other  part  of  the  service.  How  difficult  it  was  to 
keep  the  eyes  closed  1  There,  upon  the  high  pulpit,  was 
the  blind  poet,  with  uplifted  hand,  always  reaching  out 
and  up  into  his  own  illumined  darkness,  as  if  trying  to 


236     THE   EDINBURGH   MINISTRY 

catch  something  of  the  mystery  of  God  and  draw  it  down 
to  man.  He  carried  us  all  up  into  the  heights  along  with 
him ;  and  he  drew  down,  for  the  most  commonplace  of 
us,  something  of  the  transfiguring  blessing  ;  so  that,  often 
before  the  rapture  of  aspiration  was  over,  the  eyes  that 
watched  the  blind,  praying  man  in  the  pulpit  had  to  view 
him  through  a  mist  of  unconscious  tears.  How  many 
of  our  preachers  draw  tears  from  the  eyes  of  the  wor- 
shippers as  they  pray?  Through  this  man's  aspirations, 
God  laid  His  hand  on  the  heart  of  us  all.  In  other 
churches  we  could  get  more  sustained  eloquence,  more 
elaborate  theology,  more  orthodox  statements  of  Christian 
doctrine ;  but  in  this  poet-preacher  there  was  the  illuminat- 
ing flash  of  a  Divine  imagination  which  revealed  the 
beauties  of  many  a  hidden  truth ;  there  was  an  aspiration 
and  an  inspiration  and  a  spiritual  glamour  which  created 
an  atmosphere  of  worship  that  infected  us  all  with  a 
sense  of  God's  very  self  There  were  three  great  facts  of 
Christian  experience  which,  I  can  personally  testify,  Dr. 
Matheson  restated  for  us  all. 

The  first  was  the  great  truth  of  Reconciliation.  In 
those  anxious  days  the  doctrine  of  Reconciliation  seemed 
often  a  very  difficult  and  a  very  departmental  doctrine  to 
accept.  But  Dr.  Matheson  changed  all  that  for  us.  He 
lifted  a  truth  out  of  its  provincial  connection  and  showed 
it  in  its  universal  bearing.  He  showed  us  life  in  the  light 
of  the  Eternal  mercy,  until  God  and  man,  man  and  man, 
pain  and  joy,  sorrow  and  mirth,  light  and  gloom,  were  all 
made  one  in  the  great  mystic  unity  of  God's  Love.  And 
then  he  taught  us  to  have  the  patience  of  faith  to  believe 
in  the  Great  End  of  God,  when  man  would  see,  as  by  a 
vision  in  retrospect,  that  all  things  had  been  working 
together  for  good. 

Then  another  great  foundation  fact  of  his  preaching 
was  the  perfection  of  man  tJirougJi  suffering.  He  shed 
many  a  ray  of  light  on  the  mystery  of  pain.  He  taught 
us  that  God  meant  us  to  overcome  the  pains  of  life,  not 
by  avoiding  them,  but  by  taking  them  to  our  hearts  and 
passing  them  through  our  souls.  We  were  to  conquer 
all  enemies  by  conquering  all  our  enmity  to  them.     We 


THE   EDINBURGH   MINISTRY     237 

were  to  look  upon  pain  as  a  friend  (disguised),  to  be 
received,  not  as  an  enemy  to  be  shunned.  Man  was 
made  by  God  to  become  perfect  through  sufferings,  not 
to  be  made  perfectly  free  from  sufferings. 

And  most  of  all,  I  think,  he  showed  us  a  7tew  way  of 
Faith.  I  well  remember  that  it  was  a  blind  man  who 
made  me  see,  most  vividly,  that  there  is  no  contradiction 
to  Faith  in  Reason.  Reason  and  Faith  were  twin-sisters, 
only  Faith  was  ever  one  step  in  advance  of  Reason, 
whom  she  nevertheless  held  firmly  by  the  hand.  It  is 
with  a  distinct  sigh  of  relief  that  the  seeker  after  truth 
finds,  for  the  first  time,  that  Faith  has  nothing  to  fear 
from  Reason.  And  this  was  a  very  favourite  subject 
with  Dr.  Matheson.  Faith,  to  him,  was  that  sense  of  the 
soul  which  transcends  Reason.  It  was  the  sense  in  man 
which  made  him  fly  to  God,  as  the  lark  flies  to  the 
morning. 

All  this  was  Dr.  Matheson's  best  gift  to  the  distressed 
in  faith  who  came  to  hear  him  preach.  He  had  been  in 
the  depths  himself;  yet  this  man,  who  had  fought  his 
doubt  and  conquered  it,  infected  men  with  his  magnificent 
faith.  He  lifted  them  up  to  God.  He  taught  them  to 
look   upon  the  world  as  one  vast  unity  in  God's  sight. 

And  yet  it  was  not  the  least  compliment  which  we 
paid  to  him  that  we  sometimes  did  not  agree  with  him. 
He  was  an  erratic  as  well  as  an  inspired  preacher.  Some- 
times we  smiled  at  his  irresistible  thrusts  of  humour,  at 
his  extravagant  flights  of  imagination,  at  his  wayward 
interpretation  of  Holy  Scripture.  But  no  one  who  possessed 
in  the  very  slightest  degree  the  imaginative  sense,  would 
ever  have  dreamed  of  misunderstanding  him.  He  was, 
above  all  things,  suggestive.  In  those  past  days  he  was 
to  me  a  blessed  star  of  guidance,  and  but  for  him  many 
of  the  deep  truths  of  life,  which  it  is  now  my  duty  to 
preach  to  others,  would  have  had  less  meaning  to  me,  and 
to  them,  if  it  had  not  been  for  those  student  days  when 
I  sat  in  a  pew  at  St.  Bernard's. 

On  the  eve  of  leaving  Edinburgh  for  my  first  assistant- 
ship  in  Glasgow,  I  sat  down  and  wrote  him  a  letter  of 
thanks,  from  my  own  heart  to  his.     And   while  it  is   a 


238     THE   EDINBURGH   MINISTRY 

deep  privilege  to  be  able  to  set  down  this  small  testimony 
to  one  who  opened  the  eyes  of  many  an  inquiring  soul, 
it  is  also  with  pleasure  I  add  the  letter  which  he  wrote 
in  reply  to  mine — a  letter  which,  at  the  time,  sent  me  on 
my  way  rejoicing,  and  which  I  have  ever  since  kept  as  a 
precious  memento  of  one  who  was  to  me  a  light  in  the 
darkness : 

19  St.  Bernard's  Crescent,  Edinburgh, 
January  10,  1893. 

My  dear  Sir, — You  do  not  ask  an  answer  and  I  know 
you  desire  none,  but  I  cannot  forbear  just  dropping  a 
single  line  to  tell  you  how  deeply  I  am  touched  by  your 
singularly  beautiful  and  manly  letter.  It  is  such  a  letter 
as  would  atone  to  any  minister  for  years  of  obloquy  and 
seasons  of  neglect,  and  any  man  who  received  it  might 
go  to  his  grave  with  the  proud  and  grateful  consciousness 
that  his  work  had  not  been  in  vain.  To  light  one  torch 
which  itself  is  destined  to  be  a  torch  to  others,  is  as  much 
as  any  minister  can  desire. — With  all  the  sympathy  of  a 
kindred  nature. 

Believe  me,  my  dear  sir,  yours  very  sincerely, 

George  Matheson. 

Strangers  on  a  visit  to  Edinburgh  flocked  in 
large  numbers  to  hear  Dr.  Matheson.  American 
tourists  in  particular  made  a  point  of  attending  St. 
Bernard's.  His  books  had  been  carried  across  the 
Atlantic,  and  several  of  his  devotional  volumes  v^^ere 
greatly  prized  in  the  sister  continent.  Many  of 
these  tourists  v^ere  clergymen  of  distinction,  and 
several  of  them  contributed  a  sketch  of  the  poet- 
preacher  to  one  or  other  of  their  magazines.  The 
following,  by  the  Rev.  Charles  Parkhurst,  gives  the 
best  account  I  have  seen  of  Dr.  Matheson's  appear- 
ance and  manner  of  preaching  at  this  time. 
**  Spending    a    Sunday    in    Edinburgh,    our    first 


THE   EDINBURGH   MINISTRY     239 

inquiry,"  he  remarks,  ''was  for  Dr.  George 
Matheson. 

This  was  occasioned  by  the  fact  that  his  book, 
Moments  on  the  Mount,  had  fallen  into  our  hands  a  year 
ago.  We  were  greatly  charmed  and  helped  by  the  book  ; 
it  was  so  devout,  original  and  fresh,  in  its  exegesis.  To 
our  inquiry.  Who  is  Dr.  Matheson?  we  could  get  no 
answer.  We  could  only  learn  that  he  preached  at 
Edinburgh.  Great  was  our  surprise  to  learn  that  he  was 
totally  blind,  and  had  been  all  his  ministry.  This  excited 
our  curiosity  and  desire  to  hear  him.  At  an  early  hour, 
therefore,  with  unwonted  curiosity  and  expectation,  we 
are  in  his  church.  Of  the  intelligent  usher  we  make 
many  inquiries,  which  are  cordially  answered.  Dr. 
Matheson  has  been  with  them  one  year.  The  church 
had  taken  on  new  life  and  activity  in  his  pastorate.  It 
was  with  difficulty  now  that  seats  could  be  secured  on 
the  Sabbath  for  those  who  pressed  to  hear  him.  He  was 
a  most  excellent  pastor,  spending  the  greater  part  of  each 
afternoon  calling  throughout  his  parish. 

We  are  anxiously  awaiting  the  coming  of  the  preacher. 
What  a  quaint  church  is  this !  It  is  the  old  box-pew, 
very  poorly  cushioned,  and  if  the  architect  had  planned 
to  make  the  seats  as  uncomfortable  as  possible,  he  could 
not  have  succeeded  better.  There  must  be  some  unusual 
attraction  to  bring  people  to  such  seats  as  these.  We 
should  never  come  but  once,  unless  the  pulpit  had  so 
much  of  intellectual  and  spiritual  vitality  as  to  make  us 
forget  where  we  were.  A  high  gallery  runs  clear  round 
the  church.  The  bell  has  ceased  to  toll,  but  the  people 
are  still  coming,  and  we  are  compelled  to  sit  closer 
together  to  make  room  for  those  who  desire  seats.  On 
a  greatly  elevated  position  in  front  is  a  small  pulpit,  not 
larger  than  a  flour-barrel,  with  only  room  for  one  person. 
Above  it  is  a  sounding-board,  the  like  of  which  we  have 
once  seen  in  America.  Behold !  a  rear  door  opens,  and 
in  comes  our  long-looked-for  preacher.  Have  we  been  a 
long  time  in  introducing  him?  Well,  it  seemed  a  long 
time  before  he  came ;  perhaps  because  we  were  so  anxious 


240     THE   EDINBURGH   MINISTRY 

to  see  him.  We  have  desired  that  you  should  be  thus 
anxious  ;  but  he  does  not  look  as  we  had  fancied.  We 
thought  at  first  it  could  not  be  he,  but  an  unfortunate 
exchange ;  but  we  are  assured  by  the  stranger  at  our  side 
that  it  is  indeed  Dr.  Matheson.  We  confess  to  strong 
likes  and  dislikes.  We  rather  enjoy  having  our  favourites 
in  the  pulpit.  We  had  created  Dr.  Matheson  into  such 
a  one.  That  he  ?  Why,  we  had  cast  his  face  into  that  of 
the  typical  Scotch  student,  a  Dr.  M'Cosh  in  earlier  years, 
but  he  is  not  that  at  all.  I  should  not  look  for  him  in  the 
pulpit,  but  on  the  farm.  Forty-five  years  of  age  ?  He  looks 
ten  years  older.  He  has  the  face  and  form  of  General 
Grant  when  the  hero  of  Vicksburg  was  most  stout.  Taller, 
however,  rather  more  muscular,  yet  he  makes  you  think 
most  of  the  man  the  American  people  loved  so  much. 
With  full  beard  and  natural  open  eye,  you  would  have 
not  thought  that  he  was  blind  had  you  not  been  so 
informed. 

He  has  a  remarkable  congregation  in  numbers,  in  an 
indication  of  intelligence  and  spiritual  sympathy  and 
anticipation  ;  but  he  does  not  know  it.  Can  a  blind  man 
preach  with  enthusiasm  when  he  must  lack  the  responsive 
help  and  inspiration  which  the  seeing  eye  could  get  from 
such  an  unusual  audience  ?  Are  we  to  be  disappointed  ? 
Have  we  expected  too  much  ?  We  do  not  believe  it. 
The  man  who  can  write  such  a  book  must  have  it  in  him 
to  preach.  Now  he  rises,  his  body  swaying  a  little  until 
he  gets  his  equilibrium.  Announcing  a  psalm  for  alternate 
reading,  he  takes  his  verses  without  the  mistake  of  a  word, 
and  throughout  the  whole  service,  calling  for  several  hymns 
and  Scripture  references  with  chapter  and  verse,  he  never 
made  an  error.  Of  course  it  was  all  memorised.  Then 
he  prays;  and  such  a  prayer!  It  seems  profane  to  write 
about  it.  Two  things  are  evident,  however :  though  his 
visual  sight  is  entirely  eclipsed  he  does  "  see  God,"  and  he 
does  see  into  the  souls  of  his  hearers.  Like  a  skilled 
harper,  he  has  touched  every  string  of  the  human  soul  and 
made  it  chime  into  the  ear  of  God.  In  that  prayer  we 
have  been  to  the  mount  of  worship,  and  we  could  go  away 
content  even  if  we  heard  no  more.     It  was  wonderful  the 


THE   EDINBURGH   MINISTRY     241 

way  in  which  that  blind  preacher  talked  with  God  and 
uttered  the  aspirations  of  the  people. 

In  the  afternoon  of  the  same  day  we  heard  one  of  the 
most  scholarly  of  the  faculty  of  the  Presbyterian  College 
preach  and  pray,  but  it  was  all  cold,  inapt,  unresponsive. 
The  thoroughness  with  which  Dr.  Matheson  apprehended 
the  life  of  his  people,  their  struggles,  sorrows,  defeats, 
victories,  and  his  almost  superhuman  sympathy  with  such 
actual  life,  was  the  most  remarkable  characteristic  of  the 
man.  For  forty  minutes  he  preached  on  the  text,  "  Holy 
men  of  God  spake  as  they  were  moved  by  the  Holy 
Ghost."  Though  we  undertook  to  make  a  full  abstract  of 
the  sermon,  and  it  lies  before  us,  yet  so  faint  diXid  imperfect 
is  our  negative  of  that  discourse  that  we  will  not  do  this 
great  man,  so  little  known  as  yet  in  America,  the  injustice 
here  to  produce  it.  Such  a  sermon  is  never  forgotten. 
Much  that  we  had  often  vaguely  felt  he  expressed.  It 
was  not  metaphysical  nor  controversial.  He  never  said 
anything  about  different  theories  of  inspiration.  He  just 
showed  how  natural  it  was  for  God  to  reveal  Himself  in 
His  word,  just  as  He  has  done,  and  how  each  personality 
through  which  it  came,  like  David,  John,  James,  Paul, 
retained  his  identity  and  his  peculiarity.  The  whole  range 
of  illustration  in  art,  science,  history,  and  in  practical  life, 
was  touched  with  the  familiarity  of  the  master  in  each 
department.  We  were  instructed,  refreshed,  inspired. 
God  has  given  that  faithful  man,  with  his  studious  habits, 
his  pastoral  nurture  and  sympathy,  an  immense  equivalent 
for  the  loss  of  physical  vision.  Dr.  Matheson  is  to  become 
a  special  favourite  to  tourists,  who  long  to  have  the 
Sabbaths  come  that  they  may  hear  instructive  and 
inspiring  preaching. 

Hearers  of  Dr.  Matheson,  as  can  be  seen  from 

the  impressions  of  his  preaching  just  quoted,  were 

alv^ays    struck    by    the    originality,    fervour,    and 

devoutness  of  his  prayers.     Most  of  his  life,  indeed, 

v^as  spent  in  close  fellowship  with  the  Father  of 

Spirits.     Flis   hours  of  solitude    were   seasons   of 
i6 


242     THE   EDINBURGH   MINISTRY 

communion.  He  never  felt  himself  to  be  alone, 
and  though  he  could  not  see  the  outward  world  he 
peopled  a  world  of  his  own  with  the  spirits  of  just 
men  made  perfect.  All  his  meditations  end  with 
a  prayer,  and  so  does  each  chapter  of  his  Portrait 
of  Christ,  and  of  his  Representative  Men  and 
Women  of  the  Bible.  Even  his  sermons  were  not 
infrequently  caught  up  by  this  spirit  of  adoration 
into  the  seventh  heavens,  and  it  seemed  to  be  the 
most  natural  thing  in  the  world,  when  he  was 
carried  away  on  the  wings  of  some  Divine  thought, 
to  find  his  eloquence  culminating  in  a  prayer.  It 
was  in  this  form.  Indeed,  that  he  made  his  most 
effective  appeals.  In  place  of  bringing  the  truth 
home  to  his  hearers,  as  is  the  practice  of  most 
preachers,  he  brought  his  hearers  home  to  the 
truth ;  carried  them  up  into  a  region  of  Divine 
communion,  and  lifted  their  souls  above  the  things 
of  time  and  of  sense  to  those  which  are  unseen 
and  eternal.  Under  the  spell  of  his  eloquence 
they  seemed  to  see  their  souls  transfigured  before 
their  very  eyes.  Like  the  disciples  of  old,  on  the 
Mount  of  Transfiguration,  the  prayer  of  many 
was,  "It  is  good  for  us  to  be  here ;  let  us  make 
tabernacles." 

Several  of  his  members,  who  thought  that  the 
strain  under  which  he  was  put,  not  only  of  preach- 
ing but  of  giving  out  the  psalms  and  hymns,  of 
reading  and  commenting  upon  the  lessons,  and 
offering  up  the  prayers  as  well,  suggested  to  him 
that  he  ought  to  relieve  himself  of  a  part  of  the 


THE   EDINBURGH   MINISTRY     243 

service  and  to  ask  his  assistant  to  take  the  prayers. 
They  were  not  aware  of  the  dangerous  ground  on 
which  they  were  treading.  He  would  much  rather 
have  given  up  the  sermon  than  the  prayers,  for  it 
was  in  those  moments  of  ecstatic  communion  that 
he  carried  his  hearers  to  the  throne  of  ofrace.  So 
his  reply  to  the  well-meaning  petitioners  was  both 
pointed  and  characteristic.  "  Prayer,"  he  said, 
"  never  causes  me  an  effort.  When  I  pray  I  know 
I  am  addressing  the  Deity,  but,  when  I  preach,  the 
devil  may  be  among  the  congregation." 

Another  feature  of  his  preaching,  upon  which 
the  majority  of  those  who  were  in  the  habit  of 
hearing  him  are  agreed,  was  his  power  of  fusing 
all  theological  dogmas  into  the  glow  of  a  spiritual 
and  moral  presentation  of  Christian  teaching  and 
truth.  Indeed  I  would  find  in  this  the  very 
essence  of  Dr.  Matheson's  preaching.  He  taught 
religion,  and  not  any  formal  or  scholastic  aspect 
of  it.  The  Christ  of  history  was  to  him  the 
Christ  of  experience.  He  was  the  Lamb  slain 
from  the  foundation  of  the  world ;  in  Him  was 
realised  the  Divine  ideal,  and  that  ideal  was  the 
goal  towards  which  the  human  race  was  striving. 
It  was  not  an  ideal  of  doctrine  merely,  nor  of 
history,  nor  of  tradition,  nor  of  churches,  nor 
of  priests,  nor  of  creeds,  nor  of  confessions : 
it  was  an  ideal  of  thought,  an  ideal  of  life,  an 
ideal  which  was  beneath,  and  above,  and  beyond 
any  possibility  of  the  mind  of  man  to  determine 
by  mere  symbols.     We  have,   it  may  be  said,   in 


244     THE   EDINBURGH   MINISTRY 

this  conception  of  Christianity  the  views  of  a  poet 
rather  than  a  theologian.  So  be  it.  ReHglon 
is  not  theology.  There  is  far  more  poetry  than 
dogmatics  in  the  teaching  of  Christ ;  and  poets, 
as  we  know,  are  our  greatest  teachers.  Mathe- 
son  had  been  in  the  depths.  He  had  found 
how  unsatisfactory  all  purely  formal  teaching  is. 
He  had  fought  his  way  to  the  surface,  and  he 
held  the  truth  as  he  had  found  It,  through  spiritual 
storm  and  stress,  with  a  tenacity  which  no  power 
could  break,  and  he  presented  it  with  an  intellect- 
ual conviction,  and  under  an  imaginative  glow 
which  carried  his  hearers  captive.  Under  such 
preaching  all  differences  of  creeds  and  churches, 
of  faith  and  reason,  of  the  natural  and  supernatural, 
of  the  Here  and  the  Hereafter,  of  the  Divine  and 
human,  of  earth  and  heaven,  vanished  ;  and  listeners 
were  lifted  into  a  sphere  of  Divine  fellowship,  and 
their  souls  were  wafted  into  regions  of  ineffable 
bliss. 

It  may  be  interesting  to  hear  how  he  impressed 
one  who  was  in  close  official  connection  with  him. 
The  Rev.  Marshall  B.  Lang,  minister  of  Old 
Meldrum,  at  one  time  an  assistant  to  Dr.  Matheson, 
writes  as  follows  : 

In  the  pulpit  Dr.  Matheson  was  at  his  fullest  and  best. 
Sunday  after  Sunday  new  treasures  were  presented  to 
his  spell-bound  hearers.  Old  texts  shone  out  with  fresh 
meaning,  and  the  common  experiences  of  life  became 
glorified  under  the  preacher's  poetic  imagination.  The 
best  testimony  to  his  preaching  power  that  I  ever  received, 
was  from  an  old  woman  who  once  lived  in  a  dungeon  of  a 


THE   EDINBURGH   MINISTRY     245 

house  in  Stockbridge,  but  who  informed  me  that  Dr. 
Matheson's  sermons  had  made  it  impossible  for  her  to 
Hve  in  such  sordid  surroundings.  She  was  thereafter  to 
be  found  in  one  of  the  brightest  top  attics  in  a  new  street, 
not  far  off.  One  effect  of  Dr.  Matheson's  preaching  was 
an  increased  sense  of  self-respect.  He  seldom  dwelt  on 
the  humiliation  of  sin,  but  frequently  on  the  exalting 
power  of  righteousness,  and  the  magnetic  influence  of  the 
person  of  Christ  on  the  human  character.  Not  unfre- 
quently  did  he  allow  humour  to  lighten  and  brighten  his 
discourses.  Describing  on  one  occasion  the  visit  of  people 
in  different  perplexities  to  St.  Paul,  who  was  represented 
as  sitting  in  the  study,  ready  to  hear  their  grievances 
and  to  answer  questions,  and  after  giving  imaginary  con- 
versations between  Paul  and  members  of  the  Corinthian, 
Ephesian,  and  Galatian  Churches,  the  preacher  suddenly 
stopped,  and  represented  on  the  pulpit  what  purported  to 
be  a  low  knock  at  the  door  of  the  study.  "  Come  in,"  was 
twice  called  out  before  the  door  was  timidly  opened,  and 
there  entered  one  who  was  described  to  the  life,  a  man 
tall,  thin,  nervous,  and  anxious  in  expression.  "  Oh,  it  is 
teetotal  Timothy,"  exclaimed  the  preacher,  "  come  to  ask 
St.  Paul  if  it  would  be  right  to  take  a  little  wine  for  his 
stomach's  sake."  Such  vivid  imaginative  delineations  of 
character  were  listened  to  with  breathless  interest,  and  in 
these  graphic  portraitures  lay  much  of  the  preacher's 
power. 

Often  he  commenced  his  sermon  by  telling  his  people 
that  he  had  had  a  new  revelation  on  the  text  chosen. 
Indeed,  he  told  me  on  one  occasion  that  he  never  got  a 
text  without  reasoning  himself  into  the  belief  that  it  was 
a  distinct  revelation  and  contained  a  message  hitherto 
undelivered.  Whilst  at  the  beginning  of  the  sermon  the 
startling  novelty  of  his  interpretation  was  often  apparent, 
sometimes  towards  the  close  the  listener  would  find  him- 
self gradually  led  into  the  old  and  accustomed  way  of 
thought,  and  be  surprised  or  disappointed  according  to 
temperament.  At  other  times  the  preacher's  method — 
and  it  was  an  artful  method — was  to  throw  as  much  doubt 
and  darkness  upon  the  text  as  he  could,  evolving  all  the 


246     THE   EDINBURGH   MINISTRY 

possible  difficulties  in  its  reception  as  truth,  and  then 
suddenly  to  lift  the  text  out  of  its  darkness  by  proclaiming 
the  transparent  truth  contained  therein.  It  seemed  often 
as  if  he  inverted  the  natural  way  of  approach,  and  led  us 
through  a  back  door — with  its  dark  passages,  until  we  were 
suddenly  shown  out  at  the  front  door  in  the  full  light  of 
day.  No  one  who  was  a  constant  hearer  can  ever  forget 
the  wholly  characteristic  habit  he  had  of  lifting  his 
arms  when  he  "scored  a  point,"  or  when  a  sudden 
flash  of  humour  surprised  him  in  speech.  On  these 
occasions  the  very  eyes  that  were  blind  seemed  full 
of  expression.  As  when  he  solved  the  riddle  of  the 
name  and  number  of  the  "  Beast "  in  the  Book  of  the 
Revelation  by  declaring  that  its  name  was  "  Selfish- 
ness" and  its  number  "No.  i,"  and  when  he  defended 
preachers  who  were  "high"  or  "low"  by  affirming  that 
there  was  a  worse  than  either,  namely,  the  preacher  who 
was  "  thin." 

Once  when  preaching  in  St.  Bernard's  he  was  graphic- 
ally describing  the  approach  of  the  Philistine  army  over 
a  distant  hill.  "  What  is  that  I  see  ?  "  he  exclaimed,  and 
then  depicted  the  appearance  of  the  army  as  the  sun 
flashed  upon  their  armaments.  "What  is  that  I  hear?" 
he  further  exclaimed,  and  to  this  question  there  came 
a  most  unexpected  response.  The  congregation  had 
been  absolutely  still  in  their  contemplation  of  the  beauti- 
ful word-picture,  but  just  as  this  question  was  asked  one 
of  the  audience  in  a  far-off  gallery  gave  a  most  un- 
seemly and  surprisingly  loud  sneeze.  Whilst  his  audience 
could  hardly  refrain  from  audible  laughter,  the  preacher 
was  seen  to  be  as  keenly  alive  as  any  to  the  humour  of 
the  incident,  and  for  a  while  he  withheld  the  answer  until 
the  effect  of  the  surprise  had  gone. 

Mr.  Lang's  reference  to  Dr.  Matheson's  descrip- 
tion of  St.  Paul  in  his  study,  solving  the  difficulties 
of  young  inquirers  like  Timothy,  v^as  illustrated  in 
the  preacher's  experience.  Many,  especially  young, 
men  came  to  him  viith  their  religious  doubts.     He 


THE   EDINBURGH   MINISTRY     247 

thoroughly  appreciated  their  position.  His  attitude 
towards  them  was  most  encouraging  and  sym- 
pathetic, for  had  he  not  passed  through  a  similar 
mental  and  spiritual  trial  himself?  The  Rev.  Mr. 
Drummond,  now  at  Jedburgh,  who,  from  being 
at  one  time  a  member  of  Dr.  Matheson's  Bible- 
class,  came  to  be  his  colleague,  bears  witness  to 
the  service  rendered  by  Dr.  Matheson  in  this  con- 
nection.    He  says  : 

The  minister  of  St.  Bernard's  was  much  more  than 
a  popular  preacher — he  was  a  teacher  of  religion.  In- 
quiring young  men,  puzzled  by  the  problems  of  modern 
thought,  came  asking  difficult  questions  in  Christology, 
or  about  the  relation  between  science  and  religion,  or 
some  particular  book  in  the  Bible,  or  some  difficult 
doctrine  of  Christianity.  Dr.  Matheson  always  answered 
at  once,  clearly  and  fully,  as  if  he  were  giving  a  previously 
considered  opinion,  or  as  if  he  had  just  risen  from  a  fresh 
study  of  the  subject. 

Let  me  now  give  a  specimen  of  the  way  in 
which  Dr.  Matheson  prepared  the  skeletons  from 
which  he  preached  his  sermons.  Here  is  one  that 
seems  to  have  been  a  favourite  with  him.  It  is 
headed  "The  Length  and  the  Breadth,"  and  might 
have  as  a  sub-title  "  Proportion  of  Character."  The 
text  is  taken  from  Rev.  xxi.  i6  : 

The  secret  of  all  beauty  is  proportion.  A  feature  may 
be  perfect  in  itself  and  yet  incongruous  ;  hence  Hawthorne 
makes  Donatello  not  quite  Grecian.  Distinguish  contrast 
from  incongruity.  Quote  the  lines,  "  Now  upon  Syria's 
land  of  roses,"  etc.  The  union  in  these  lines  of  summer 
and  winter  is  all  right,  but  it  would  be  all  wrong  if  they 
were  transposed  in  geographical  position.  A  child  play- 
ing on  a  grave  is  all  right;  but  not  a  man.     The  most 


248     THE   EDINBURGH   MINISTRY 

hard  thing  is  to  get  proportion  of  character.  There  are 
Httlenesses  in  great  men — for  example,  Elijah;  and  there 
are  greatnesses  in  little  men,  e.g.,  the  miser  at  Innellan 
who  bore  so  well  the  fall  of  the  City  Bank.  Three  types 
of  irregularity.  First,  Men  of  isolated  height,  e.g.,  John. 
They  soar  aloft  and  seek  a  higher  world ;  but  they  are 
apt  to  ignore  the  claims  of  length — the  walking  along 
the  prosaic  plain  of  practice,  e.g.,  Samaria.  Second,  Men 
of  isolated  length,  or  the  walk  along  the  plain,  e.g.,  James. 
It  comprehends  the  young  men  who  spend  their  whole  life 
in  a  routine  of  work,  and  never  raise  their  eyes  to  justi- 
fication by  faith.  Third,  Men  of  isolated  breadth,  e.g., 
the  nameless  young  man  in  the  Gospel  who  always 
refused  to  do  what  he  was  desired  to  do.  This  type 
rejoices  in  breadth  for  its  own  sake — because  it  is  doing 
a  forbidden  thing,  e.g.,  skating  on  Sunday,  or  promenad- 
ing in  Waverley  Market.  But  there  is  no  beauty  in 
breadth  for  its  own  sake;  it  must  be  breadth  for  the 
sake  of  height,  i.e.,  not  the  desire  to  break  a  fence,  but 
to  carry  something  across  the  field. 

The  city  of  God  has  these  three  elements  of  proportion. 
Human  life  leads  through  each  in  turn.  Its  progress 
is  marked  by  the  three  words,  "  aloft,"  "  along,"  "  across." 
We  begin  by  seeking  the  height — a  fairer  world  than  ours. 
Youth  is  the  most  dissatisfied  period.  By  and  by  we 
are  stopped  by  some  practical  weakness  in  ourselves,  and 
we  give  up  trying.  Whatever  the  weakness  is  that  stops 
us  becomes  to  us  the  only  thing  in  the  world  to  be 
conquered.  If  it  is  drink,  our  gospel  becomes  teetotalism  ; 
if  pride,  we  insist  that  everyone  shall  feel  himself  a  poor 
creature.  We  move  along  a  narrow  plank,  and  admit  no 
breadth  beyond  it.  At  last  there  comes  a  new  revelation, 
that  our  brother  and  we  have  not  been  impeded  by  the 
same  weakness,  and  we  grow  broad ;  we  move  across,  to 
meet  in  sympathy  his  way  of  salvation.  Christ's  training 
of  the  Twelve  is  directed  to  bring  out  one  of  the  three 
elements.  Peter  is  too  materialistic.  He  presses  along 
the  road  of  practical  action  so  keenly  that  he  has  length 
without  height  or  ideality.  Christ  takes  him  up  to  the 
mount.     Apply   to   those  who  are  withdrawn  from   the 


THE   EDINBURGH   MINISTRY     249 

world  by  illness.  John  has  height  or  ideality,  but  he 
wants  practice  or  length  of  road.  Christ  sends  him  to 
cast  out  devils ;  God  often  interrupts  our  dreams  by 
sending  us  the  need  for  hard  work.  Paul  has  both  height 
and  practice,  but  at  first  he  wants  breadth,  e.g.,  his  attitude 
towards  circumcision.  God  sends  him  the  thorn — a 
difficulty  in  his  own  sphere  of  labour.  Nothing  broadens 
us  like  trial  in  our  strong-point.  Christ  includes  all 
three — heights  of  prayer,  day  of  walking,  work  ;  and 
sympathy  with  aims  distinct  from  His  own,  e.g.,  the  man 
who  would  not  follow  Him.  Hence  Christ  unites  the 
guild  of  humanity. 


CHAPTER   X 

PASTORAL   AND   LITERARY 

**  Dr.  Matheson  has  now  completed  his  visita- 
tion of  the  congregation.  Some  no  doubt  have 
been  omitted,  although  the  list  has  been  made  up 
as  carefully  as  possible.  Dr.  Matheson  would  be 
very  sorry  to  pass  over  any  of  his  congregation, 
and  he  would  be  obliged  by  any  in  the  parish  on 
whom  he  has  not  called  letting  him  know  of  the 
omission."  Such  is  the  announcement  on  the  first 
page  of  the  Parish  Magazine  of  St.  Bernard's  for 
December  1886.  Dr.  Matheson  was  inducted  to 
his  charge  on  the  12th  May  of  that  year,  so  that 
within  the  brief  period  of  six  months  he  had  visited 
every  family  in  connection  with  his  church. 

To  the  layman,  the  fatigue  and  mental  strain 
involved  in  such  an  ordeal  are  quite  unknown. 
The  congregation  of  St.  Bernard's  at  this  time 
numbered  close  upon  1500  members.  There  were 
in  addition  many  seat-holders  who  were  not  in 
communion  with  the  congregation  ;  outsiders,  who 
identified  themselves  with  the  church  solely  on 
account  of  Dr.  Matheson's  preaching.     They  also 


PASTORAL    AND   LITERARY      251 

were  visited ;  so  that,  altogether,  the  new  minister 
must  have  paid  within  the  short  period  mentioned 
not  fewer  than  between  five  and  six  hundred  calls. 
And  all  this,  be  it  remembered,  in  addition  to  visits 
paid  to  the  sick,  to  the  aged,  to  the  infirm,  and  to 
the  dying.  Dr.  Matheson  at  the  same  time  was 
preparing  and  preaching  sermons  of  the  rarest 
quality,  attending  assiduously  to  the  various 
associations  in  connection  with  his  church,  and 
discharging  the  numerous  demands  of  a  public 
nature  that  were  being  made  upon  him.  In 
addition  he  was  busy  at  work  on  important  literary 
ventures,  writing  articles  for  magazines,  and  keep- 
ing himself  fully  abreast  of  the  literature  of  the 
day.  No  layman,  I  have  remarked,  can  fully 
appreciate  what  Is  meant  by  a  minister  of  Dr. 
Matheson's  temperament  paying  so  many  visits 
within  so  limited  a  space  of  time.  He  was  so 
warm-hearted  and  full  of  sympathy  that  every  new 
person  whom  he  met  In  his  ministerial  capacity 
drew,  so  to  speak,  virtue  out  of  him ;  made  a 
demand  upon  his  spiritual  nature  which  was 
bound  to  be  exhausting.  Indeed,  I  know  as  a  fact 
that  the  visits  that  he  paid  at  this  time  made 
a  lasting  impression  upon  his  congregation.  The 
very  expressions  which  he  used  were  remembered 
by  them.  He  put  himself  so  closely  In  touch,  not 
only  with  their  particular  circumstances,  but  even 
with  their  special  idiosyncrasies,  that  his  words 
were  ever  cherished.  And  he  was  blind.  This  son 
of  genius,    whose   true  sphere,    in   the  opinion    of 


252      PASTORAL   AND    LITERARY 

many,  was  the  study  on  the  week  day  and  the 
pulpit  on  the  Sunday,  divested  himself,  with  the 
utmost  cheerfulness,  of  his  favourite  robe  and 
clothed  himself  with  the  garment  of  humility.  He 
descended  to  the  depths  of  Stockbridge,  visited 
poor  widows  in  sunken  areas  or  climbed  to  highest 
attics,  and  with  his  hearty,  sympathetic  words 
cheered  them  in  their  loneliness  and  comforted  them 
in  their  sorrow. 

No  one  ever  heard  of  a  minister  with  his  full 
power  of  vision  and  with  the  sturdy  limbs  of  a 
Goliath  ever  accomplishing  a  feat  like  this.  The 
vast  majority  of  the  clergy  make  no  pretence  to 
genius.  If  they  possessed  it  they  might  very 
well  say,  '*  Such  laborious,  physical  toil  can  be 
performed  by  men  of  lesser  mark  ;  let  us  confine 
ourselves  to  our  God-appointed  task  of  ministering 
to  the  intellectual  wants  of  our  people  on  Sundays." 
Matheson,  at  the  time  the  one  minister  of  genius 
in  the  Church,  thought  otherwise.  He  did  not 
even  make  his  blindness  an  excuse.  He  visited 
the  fatherless,  and  widows  in  their  affliction,  and 
kept  himself  unspotted  from  the  world.  Some  may 
have  thought  that  his  teaching  failed  in  practicality. 
No  one  with  a  spark  of  his  spirit  ever  believed  that. 
His  teaching,  especially  during  his  St.  Bernard's 
ministry,  was  full  of  reality.  Every  sermon  almost, 
was  an  application  of  Christianity  to  common  life  ; 
but,  should  there  be  any  doubt,  his  labours  during 
his  first  six  months  at  St.  Bernard's  ought  to  be  a 
sufficient  answer. 


PASTORAL   AND   LITERARY      253 

"  He  was,"  writes  the  Session  Clerk  of  St. 
Bernard's,  ''an  indefatigable  visitor  "  ;  nor  did  this 
feature  of  his  ministry  belong  to  his  first  year  in 
St.  Bernard's  only,  it  marked  his  ministry  on  to 
the  time  he  applied  to  the  Presbytery  for  a 
colleague.  Dr.  Matheson  perhaps  felt  himself  put 
on  his  mettle.  The  great  fear  on  the  part  of  some 
of  the  St.  Bernard's  people,  with  regard  to  his 
appointment,  was  that  he  would  be  unable  to 
discharge  the  ordinary  duties  of  a  parish  minister. 
In  the  case  of  St.  Bernard's  these  duties  were  not 
ordinary  but  extraordinary.  The  church  was 
situated  in  the  north-western  part  of  Edinburgh ; 
the  parish  included  a  large  working-class  element, 
and  in  it  was  Stockbridge,  a  district  bordering  on 
slumdom.  The  congregation  was  thus  a  mixed 
one.  There  were  a  number  of  well-to-do-families, 
representing  the  professional  and  mercantile  classes  ; 
but  the  vast  majority  of  the  congregation  were 
of  the  artisan  order,  and  under  recent  ministries 
the  church  was  worked  on  the  "  modern  "  system. 
Organisations  were  multiplied,  agencies  were  in- 
creased, schemes  were  set  on  foot ;  in  fact,  St. 
Bernard's,  when  Dr.  Matheson  came  to  it,  was 
a  very  bee-hive  of  associations.  What  such  a 
church  really  required  was  a  manager  and  not  a 
minister,  a  man  of  business  faculty  who  could  keep 
the  concern  running,  rather  than  a  man  of  genius 
who  could  supply  ideas  for  the  illumination  of 
conduct  and  of  life.  The  spirit  of  the  church  was 
mechanical  rather  than  dynamical,  and  at  the  first 


254      PASTORAL   AND   LITERARY 

blush  Dr.  Matheson  was  the  last  man  in  the  world 

who  ought  to  have  been  appointed  its  minister. 

Here  is  the  calendar  of  the  various  meetings 

of  the  different  Associations  in  St.  Bernard's  for  a 

single  week  : 

Forenoon  and  Afternoon  Services,  Children's  Church, 
Sunday  Schools,  and  Class  for  Women  and  Girls  on 
Sunday ;  Evening  Work  Party,  Boys'  Carving  Class, 
Girls'  Club,  and  Literary  Society  on  Monday ;  Mothers' 
Meeting  and  Sewing  Class  on  Tuesday ;  Boys'  Brigade 
on  Wednesday ;  Choir  Practising  on  Thursday ;  Savings 
Bank  and  Boys'  Brigade  Reading  Club  on  Saturday.  In 
addition  to  these  there  must  not  be  omitted  the  Young 
Men's  Fellowship  Meeting  in  the  Session  House  on  Sun- 
day ;  the  Forenoon  Work  Party  and  the  Bible  Class  in 
the  Session  House  on  Wednesday ;  and  the  Minister  s 
Class  for  Children  in  the  church  after  Forenoon  Service 
on  Sunday ;  as  well  as  the  Parochial  Coal  Fund  and  the 
Flower  Mission.  The  services  of  the  Lady  Collectors  are 
well  known. 

Dr.  Matheson  achieved  many  triumphs  in  his 
day,  but  the  one  which  he  obtained  over  the 
difficulties  that  faced  him  in  St.  Bernard's  seems 
to  me  to  have  been  his  greatest.  There  are  few 
ministers  in  the  Church  who  would  lightly  enter  on 
such  a  sphere.  The  chances  of  failure  would,  in 
the  vast  majority  of  cases,  far  outweigh  those  of 
success ;  and  yet  Matheson  succeeded.  During 
the  first  five  years  of  his  ministry  his  communion 
roll  steadily  increased.  In  1886  it  was  1494; 
in  1887,  1530  >  i^  1888,  1591  ;  in  1889,  1676; 
and  in  1890,  1703.  The  revenue  of  the  church 
increased  in  similar  proportions.  I  have  before 
me,    as    I    write,    notebook   after    notebook   filled 


PASTORAL   AND   LITERARY      255 

with  addresses,  most  carefully  prepared,  which 
Dr.  Matheson  delivered  to  the  different  agencies 
and  organisations  of  the  church.  These  include 
lectures  to  the  Sunday-School  teachers  ;  addresses 
to  District  Visitors,  to  the  Young  Men's  Guild,  to 
the  Young  Women's  Association,  to  the  Boys' 
Brigade,  to  the  Literary  Society,  to  the  Prayer 
Meeting,  Mothers'  Meeting,  etc.  etc.  An  ordinary 
minister  would  have  excused  himself  from  making 
any  preparation  for  such  gatherings.  He  would 
have  trusted  to  the  spur  of  the  moment.  Not  so 
Dr.  Matheson.  Every  address  was  as  thoughtful 
and  as  appropriate  to  the  occasion  as  his  greatest 
sermons.  A  selection  from  them  would  make  a 
fascinating  chapter  in  Homiletics,  and  would  be 
invaluable  to  the  pastor  whose  chosen  sphere  was 
the  cure  of  souls. 

There  was  one  body  in  particular  that  received 
the  very  best  which  he  could  give  them  ;  that  was 
his  Bible  Class.  It  consisted  of  two  divisions : 
young  men  and  young  women,  who  met  on 
alternate  weeks.  There  were  two  books  which  he 
selected  for  his  addresses,  the  Book  of  Genesis 
and  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  ;  and  he  so  prepared 
himself  for  his  work  that  his  remarks  upon  each 
chapter  and  verse  might  be  published  as  most 
luminous  commentaries  on  t'icse  two  portions  of 
the  Bible.  His  method  cor.ibined  criticism  with 
exposition.  The  text  was  elucidated,  side  lights 
were  thrown  upon  it  from  history  and  archaeology. 
The  customs  of  the  times  were  brought  in  to  shed 


256      PASTORAL   AND    LITERARY 

further  light  upon  it.  Then  followed  his  own  fresh 
interpretation,  and  its  practical  application  to  the 
lives  of  the  young  men  and  young  women  who 
were  listening:  to  him.  These  lectures  formed  an 
epoch  in  the  lives  of  many  who  heard  them. 

A  specimen  of  his  Notes  on  Genesis  and  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles  may  not  be  unwelcome.  Let 
me  give  his  opening  remarks,  first  on  Genesis,  and 
then  on  the  Acts  : 

Chap.  i.  ver.  i. — Explain  In  what  senses  Genesis  records 
the  beginning  of  things.  "In  the  beginning" ;  one  book 
goes  farther  back  still  (John  i.  i).  Exhibit  how  each  of  the 
Gospels  progressively  antedates  Christ's  genealogy.  Give 
the  two  different  views  regarding  the  words,  "  In  the  be- 
ginning"—  those  of  Hugh  Miller  and  Chalmers.  "In 
the  beginning  God  created";  His  existence  is  assumed. 
State  the  four  words  in  which  this  chapter  expresses 
creation — (i)  "Created,"  Gen.  i.  i,  21,  27;  (2)  "Made," 
Gen.  i.  7 ;  (3)  "  Formed,"  Gen.  ii.  7 ;  (4)  "  Build,"  Gen.  ii. 
22.  Catechism  makes  it  creation  out  of  nothing,  but 
nothing  means  no  tiling.  Compare  Heb.  xi.  3.  Defend 
the  emanation  view,  illustrating  by  a  candle  lighted  at  a 
fire.  This  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  everything  is  referred 
to  the  breath  or  Spirit  of  God.  "  The  heavens  and  the 
earth " ;  the  heavens  before  the  earth,  true  to  science. 
P.S. — Explain  the  different  words  for  God. 

The  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  Chap.  i.  ver.  i. — "The 
former  treatise."  Analyse  the  preface  of  Luke's  Gospel, 
taking  up  the  origin  of  the  Gospels  from  oral  tradition 
and  showing  how  the  different  parties  in  the  Church  would 
each  emphasise  the  facts  bearing  on  their  own  tendency. 
Show  how  the  four  Gospels  are  coloured  by  the  parties  of 
James,  Peter,  Paul,  and  Apollos  respectively,  and  describe 
the  evangelists  by  the  figures  in  Ezekiel's  vision — man, 
lion,  ox,  and  eagle.  "  O  Theophilus " ;  the  "  most  ex- 
cellent" in  Luke  is  dropped  through  greater  familiarity. 
"  Began  to  do  and  to  teach."   This,  Luke's  peculiar  formula ; 


PASTORAL  AND   LITERARY      25  7 

he  goes  to  the  sources ;  it  means,  "  Did  and  taught  from 
the  beginning."  "  To  do  and  to  teach."  Matthew  deals 
chiefly  in  his  teaching,  Mark  in  his  deeds,  Luke  in  both. 

This  is  how  Dr.  Matheson  prepared  himself 
for  his  Addresses  to  Teachers.  The  following,  one 
of  forty  or  so  that  I  have  counted,  is  based  on 
Psalm  Ixxxi.  vers,  ii,  12,  ''But  My  people  would 
not  hearken  to  My  voice  ;  and  Israel  would  none 
of  Me.  So  I  gave  them  up  unto  their  own  hearts' 
lust :  and  they  walked  in  their  own  counsels." 

Child's  greatest  danger  is  self-will  or  love  of  inde- 
pendence. Its  origin  is  not  love  of  self,  for  self-willed 
people  are  generally  discontented.  It  comes  from 
an  intellectual  error  —  the  belief  that  independence 
is  manly.  This  again  comes  from  a  false  notion,  that  all 
the  grand  things  in  nature  are  self-acting.  Teacher  should 
counteract  that,  should  teach  the  child  that  there  is  no 
such  thing  in  nature  as  a  thing  hanging  upon  nothing. 
When  we  come  to  man  we  do  find  cases  of  laudable 
independence,  i.e.^  people  refusing  to  be  a  burden  to  anyone. 
But  teachers  should  point  out  that  even  in  these  cases  we 
only  reach  independence  of  one  thing,  by  leaning  on 
another  thing,  e.g.,  independence  of  praise  comes  from 
sense  of  duty ;  fearlessness  of  man  from  fear  of  God. 
Hence  if  a  child  should  become  independent  of  the  bands 
of  conscience,  verse  12  says  it  can  only  be  by  getting 
entangled  in  other  bands,  "  I  gave  them  up  unto  their  own 
hearts'  lust."  Every  paltering  with  conscience  does 
indeed  loosen  the  bond,  and  teacher  should  scrupulously 
watch  the  initial  attempts  to  get  this  false  freedom. 

One  of  his  most  characteristic  and  thoughtful 
addresses  bears  the  followinor  title  : — 

Address  to  "Cat  and  Dog"  Home 

Begin    by    Goethe's    two    stages :     Christianity    first 
taught   the  reverence   for  inferior  things — the   reverence 
17 


258      PASTORAL   AND   LITERATIY 

for  man  as  man,  irrespective  even  of  brotherhood.  In 
later  times  the  reverence  has  gone  down  beneath  even 
humanity — to  the  animal  world.  Darwinism  has  preached 
the  gospel  of  a  ground  of  sympathy  between  man  and 
beast.  They  have  a  perfect  community  of  nature  in  the 
possession  of  one  thing — pain.  All  creation  is  sympathetic- 
ally united  in  the  sense  of  want,  and  whatever  creates 
my  sympathy  becomes  thereby  my  creditor. 

Here  is  a  little  sketch  of  the  way  in  which  he 
moved  among  his  parishioners.  It  relates  to  the 
year  1893  ^^  1^94^  after  he  had  been  seven  or  eight 
years  in  St.  Bernard's.  It  throws  some  light  also 
on  his  labours  in  other  relations,  upon  the  calls 
made  upon  him  in  connection  with  baptismal, 
marriage,  and  funeral  services.  These,  in  so  large 
a  congregation,  were  numerous  Indeed.  It  does  not 
refer  to  his  work  in  connection  with  his  young 
communicants'  classes.  No  minister  ever  under- 
took that  duty  with  a  more  serious  consideration 
of  its  importance  than  Dr.  Matheson,  and  his 
many  addresses,  also  carefully  and  thoughtfully 
prepared  for  these  classes,  are  models  of  their  kind. 
Speaking  of  his  parochial  and  congregational  work, 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Lang,  already  quoted,  says  : 

Dr.  Matheson,  while  I  was  assistant  to  him  in  St. 
Bernard's,  certainly  did  not  neglect  these  duties.  Baptisms 
were  conducted  in  the  church  once  a  month,  and  frequently 
in  his  own  dining-room.  He  always  used  the  same  form 
of  service  in  baptism,  a  form  of  his  own,  but  always  the 
same.  In  my  day  he  also  conducted  the  service  at  a 
great  many  of  the  funerals.  His  prayer  on  such  occasions 
was  most  beautiful,  and  I  only  wish  I  could  remember 
it  correctly.  I  recollect  on  one  occasion,  at  the  funeral  of 
a  child,  he  used  some  such  expressions  as  the  following  : — 


PASTORAL   AND   LITERARY      259 

"  Sometimes  Thou  sendest  Thine  angel  when  the  sun  is  \ 
setting  and  the  leaf  is  ready  to  fall.  At  other  times,  when 
the  sun  is  in  its  meridian  and  the  flower  is  in  fullest 
bloom.  But  here  Thine  angel  has  plucked  a  tender  bud, 
ere  even  the  sun  had  opened  its  petals,  and  we  murmur 
not,  for  in  the  sun  of  Thy  love  it  has  opened  to  the 
perfect  day."  Such,  but  very  imperfectly  recorded,  was 
part  of  the  prayer.  In  the  visitation  of  the  sick 
he  was  always  assiduous.  One  woman  told  me  she 
always  felt  better  when  she  heard  his  footstep.  His 
cheerful,  but  wholly  sympathetic,  manner  at  the  bedside 
was  sure  to  be  a  tonic.  In  his  interesting  prayer  he  used 
to  pray  that  to  the  sad  and  sick  there  might  be  given  that 
grandly  irrational  and  wholly  incomprehensible  peace 
which  the  world  cannot  give,  much  less  take  away.  His 
relation  to  children  and  his  sermons  to  them  were  not  the 
least  striking  traits  in  his  rich  and  many-sided  character. 

Matheson  had  not  been  long  in  St  Bernard's 
until  a  movement  was  set  on  foot  for  renovating 
the  church.  He  was  to  do  for  his  new  charge  a 
work  somewhat  similar  to  what  he  had  done  for 
his  old  one.  He  was  to  raise  a  large  sum  of 
money.  At  Innellan  his  object  was  to  build  a 
manse  and  to  endow  and  erect  the  church  into  a 
parish ;  at  St.  Bernard's  his  purpose  was  to  bring 
his  church  structurally  up  to  date,  to  provide  some 
necessary  accommodation,  and  to  make  the  whole 
building,  with  its  appurtenances,  suitable  for  the 
service  of  God  and  the  work  of  the  congregation 
and  parish.  A  sum  of  two  thousand  pounds 
was  required,  and  within  a  year  the  money  was 
raised,  the  work  done,  and  the  church  reopened. 
This  was  in  October  1888,  after  he  had  been 
minister  of  St.  Bernard's  for  a  little  more  than  two 


260      PASTORAL   AND   LITERARY 

years.  This  effort,  so  quick  and  so  successful,  Is 
a  further  proof  of  Matheson's  capacity  as  a  man 
of  business,  and  his  keen  Interest  in  the  practical 
side  of  church  life. 

Many  who  are  familiar  with  him  solely  through 
his  Meditations  may  regard  him  as  a  recluse  and 
a  dreamer,  a  student  of  the  devout  life,  given  to 
Introspection.  Others  who  have  read  his  more 
ambitious  books,  dealing  with  theological  and 
philosophical  subjects,  may  hold  him  to  have  been 
a  man  of  rare  speculative  power,  and  some  who 
chanced  to  hear  him  preach  once  or  twice  In 
their  lifetime,  may  look  up  to  him  as  a  prophet, 
who  could  read  the  soul  of  things  and  inspire 
his  hearers  with  lofty  and  beautiful  ideals.  But 
very  few  of  them  perhaps  ever  believe  him  to 
have  been  the  rarest  of  all  men — a  practical  Chris- 
tian ;  one  who  carried  out  in  the  daily  routine 
of  duty  the  thoughts  that  he  breathed,  the  beliefs 
that  he  cherished,  and  the  emotions  which  filled  his 
soul.  It  was  only  those  who  came  Into  personal 
contact  with  him,  who  were  aware  of  his  multitu- 
dinous labours  on  behalf  of  his  congregation  and 
parish,  of  his  indefatigable  zeal  In  ministering  to 
the  wants  of  all  ages  and  classes,  and  Inspiring 
the  different  associations  and  agencies  In  connection 
with  his  church  with  a  true  conception  of  their 
vocation  and  duty.  True,  he  was  a  mystic,  but  he 
was  a  practical  mystic,  of  all  men  the  most 
irresistible  ;  a  dreamer  of  dreams  that  he  realised  in 
fact ;  a  seer  of  visions  which  he  transformed  Into 


PASTORAL   AND   LITERARY      261 

reality.  Preaching  at  the  reopening  of  his  church, 
he  paid  a  generous  tribute  to  his  predecessors  in 
office,  and  proclaimed  the  Gospel  of  humanitarianism, 
of  practical  Christianity,  of  religion  in  common  life, 
which  was  to  those  who  knew  him  the  main  note 
of  his  preaching  and  the  foundation  of  his  work  and 
life.     "We  have  this  day,"  he  said, 

reopened  our  "holy  and  beautiful  house."  It  has  not 
been  unclothed,  but  clothed  upon.  I  am  glad  that  it  has 
not  been  unclothed,  glad  the  old  memories  still  surround 
the  ancient  walls.  Sixty-and-five  years  has  this  church 
been  in  existence,  and  its  life  has  been  a  progress  from 
the  streamlet  to  the  sea.  With  that  progress  I  myself 
had  little  to  do;  other  men  have  laboured,  and  I  have 
entered  into  their  labours.  I  have  been  indebted  to  a 
long  line  of  illustrious  predecessors — to  the  evangelical 
fervour  of  Martin,  the  genuine  ability  of  M'Farlane,  the 
energetic  power  of  Caesar,  the  intellectual  vigour  of  Brown, 
the  popular  eloquence  of  Robertson,  the  literary  fame  of 
Boyd,  the  profound  spirituality  and  unblemished  piety  of 
my  immediate  pre-runner,  Mr.  M'Murtrie. 

But  looking  back  on  the  labours  of  others,  and  speak- 
ing purely  from  the  standpoint  of  a  spectator,  I  may  be 
allowed  to  feel  proud.  I  may  be  allowed  to  congratulate 
myself  that  I  have  been  privileged  to  be  the  minister  of 
the  congregation  which  has  done  so  much  for  the  cause  of 
humanitarian  interests.  No  one  can  say  that,  originally, 
the  lines  were  cast  to  you  in  pleasant  places.  Around 
you  was  the  city,  with  its  sins  and  sorrows — its  sins  of 
deepest  colour,  its  sorrows  of  darkest  dye.  Before  you 
were  poverty,  squalor,  vice,  personal  failure,  social  corrup- 
tion, human  degeneracy.  Over  this  trackless  region  you 
have  made  a  path,  through  which  already  the  flowers 
begin  to  peep.  Your  vast  Sabbath  Schools,  your  flourish- 
ing Fellowships,  your  extensive  classes  for  males  and 
females,  your  Clothing  Club  in  which  self-help  has  been 
made  to  blend  with  benevolent  help,  your  munificent 
donations  to  church  schemes ;   above  all,  your  power  of 


262      PASTORAL   AND   LITERARY 

personal  visitation,  have  contributed  to  purify  the  air  and 
have  left  to  the  germs  room  to  grow. 

And  now  what  should  be  our  guerdon  of  this  extended 
building?  More  sacrifice,  more  work  to  do;  that  is  what 
you  expect — you  and  I.  We  have  opened  wide  our  doors 
that  more  of  humanity  may  enter  in.  But  if  in  the 
language  of  the  hymn  we  look  for  "  many  a  labour,  many 
a  sorrow,  many  a  tear,"  we  look  also  for  that  which  shall  wipe 
away  all  tears  from  the  eyes.  We  look  for  an  increase 
of  that  humanitarian  love  which  is  itself  the  love  of 
Christianity's  divine  Head,  and  in  whose  light  and  leading 
we  believe  that  the  weight  of  the  burden  shall  disappear. 
It  is  this  conviction  which  to-day  emboldens  us  to  con- 
secrate our  building  to  the  Highest,  and  to  say  to  the 
Chief  Corner-Stone  of  all  its  architecture — "  Establish 
Thou  the  work  of  our  hands." 

The  amount  and  character  of  the  work  which 
we  have  thus  seen  Dr.  Matheson  accomplished 
on  behalf  of  his  congregation  and  parish,  would  be 
sufficient  to  tax  the  energies  of  most  men  ;  but  when 
we  follow  him  into  his  study,  and  consider  his 
labours  there  for  the  wider  public  who  knew  him 
mainly  as  an  author,  we  are  filled  with  genuine 
astonishment.  His  literary  output  during  the 
thirteen  years  of  his  ministry  in  St.  Bernard's  was 
equal  in  quantity  to  what  he  produced  at  Innellan. 
It  may  not,  however,  have  taxed  him  quite  to  the 
same  extent,  for  the  subjects  on  which  he  wrote 
demanded  less  research  and  less  profound  thinking. 
It  may  be  said,  of  course,  that  his  choice  in  this 
respect  was  natural  because  he  had  less  leisure, 
but  this  was  not  the  whole  reason,  and  it  will 
be  afterwards  shown  that  his  departure  from  the 
themes  that  attracted  him  in  his  Innellan  days  was 


PASTORAL   AND   LITERARY      263 

the  result  of  a  natural  development.  His  mental 
and  spiritual  growth  drew  him  into  new  paths  and 
attracted  him  to  fresh  subjects. 

One  important  change  is  noticeable  :  his  con- 
tributions to  periodical  literature  during  this  time 
are  fewer  in  number,  and  they  are  on  more 
biblical  themes.  They  are  of  a  lighter  vein,  more 
expository  in  character,  and  better  adapted  for  the 
general  religious  public.  They  are  found,  conse- 
quently, In  the  pages  of  those  magazines  that  are 
meant  for  Sunday  reading.  We  find  him  accord- 
ingly writing  for  Good  Words,  The  Homiletic 
Magazine,  The  Quiver,  The  Expository  Times,  The 
Christian  World,  and  The  Children  s  Guide,  His 
fame  had  now  crossed  the  Atlantic,  and  contribu- 
tions by  him  are  solicited  by  such  magazines  as  The 
Biblical  World  published  in  Chicago,  and  by  The 
Sunday  School  Tiines  of  Philadelphia.  All  his 
articles  in  these  magazines  are  characterised  by  his 
usual  freshness  of  thought  and  finish  of  style,  and 
one  of  them  on  the  ''  Feminine  Ideal  of  Christianity," 
which  appeared  in  The  Biblical  World,  is  of  ex- 
ceptional ability  and  Interest. 

The  very  year  after  his  induction  to  St.  Bernard's 
he  published  a  new  volume.  The  Psalmist  and  the 
Scientist,  or  the  Modern  Value  of  the  Religious 
Sentiment.  This  was  the  aftermath  of  his  im- 
portant work.  Can  the  Old  Faith  Live  with  the  New? 
It  was  a  selection,  so  to  speak,  from  the  chips  that 
had  collected  in  his  workshop  while  he  was  engaged 
on  that  striking  volume.     The  subject  continued  to 


264      PASTORAL   AND    LITERARY 

interest  him  during  the  remainder  of  his  life,  and 
ten  years  afterwards  he  reverted  to  it  in  a  volume 
which  he  wrote,  but  never  published,  on  Natural 
Religion.  The  special  subject  of  The  Psalmist  and 
the  Scientist  he  had  already  anticipated  in  a  long 
and  thoughtful  article  which  he  wrote  on  '*  Modern 
Science  and  the  Religious  Instinct."  The  question 
which  he  asked  in  that  article  was  :  '*  Is  the  modern 
doctrine  of  evolution  unfavourable  to  the  develop- 
ment of  the  religious  sentiment  ?  Does  it  tend 
naturally  to  dwarf  the  growth  of  the  primitive 
instinct  or  to  exert  a  chilling  influence  on  the 
warmth  of  early  days  ?  "  Conceding  that  there  is 
no  incompatibility  between  the  spirit  of  early  faith 
and  the  spirit  of  modern  science,  his  article  is  an 
attempt  to  answer  these  questions  ;  and,  beginning 
with  the  statement  that  the  three  elements  which 
constitute  the  natural  basis  of  religion  are  a  sense 
of  wonder,  a  sense  of  fear,  and  a  sense  of  depend- 
ence, he  shows  that  on  the  principle  of  evolution 
these  three  elements  not  only  remain  but  are  intensi- 
fied and  purified,  broadened  out  and^strengthened  to 
such  a  degree,  as  to  make  them  surer  foundations  of 
religion.  In  another  article,  which  he  wrote  about 
the  same  time,  on  "  Evolution  in  relation  to 
Miracles,"  which  appeared  in  The  Homiletic 
Magazine,  he  touches  on  the  same  question,  and 
defining  miracle  in  the  Christian  sense  to  be  the 
"initial  stage  of  that  process  by  which  a  lower  law 
is  transcended  by  a  higher  law,"  he  finds  nothing  in 
evolution  that  would  contradict  it.     It  was  thus  his 


PASTORAL   AND    LITERARY      265 

habit  to  prepare  himself  for  his  more  important 
books  by  a  series  of  articles  or  addresses ;  he 
threshed  out  the  subject  first  of  all  in  his  own  mind, 
and  looked  at  it  from  every  standpoint.  This 
largely  accounts  for  the  clearness  of  thought  and 
sureness  of  step  which  characterised  all  his  writing. 
In  his  preface  to  The  Psahnist  and  the  Scientist,  he 
states  the  purpose  of  the  book.  He  says :  ''I 
design  to  inquire  whether  the  religious  sentiment 
of  the  past  has  been  superannuated  or  rendered 
obsolete  by  the  modern  conception  of  nature  ? 
I  have  expressed  respectively  these  seemingly 
opposite  standpoints  by  the  title,  The  Psalmist  and 
the  Scientist.  Science  is  confessedly  the  author  of 
the  modern  conception  of  nature ;  the  Book  of 
Psalms  is  admittedly  the  repository  of  the  religious 
sentiment  in  its  largest  and  most  comprehensive 
form." 

This  may  not  be  one  of  Dr.  Matheson's  greatest 
books,  but  it  has  proved  itself  to  have  been  one  of 
his  most  useful.  It  popularised  the  subject  of  his 
former  volume,  illustrated  its  arguments  in  various 
ways,  and  put  material  into  the  hands  of  preachers 
which  they  were  not  slow  to  use.  The  ordinary 
reader  may  not  have  been  able  to  follow  the  reason- 
ing of  Can  the  Old  Faith  Live  with  the  New  ?  but 
in  the  newer  volume  the  subject  is  brought  down  to 
the  level  of  every  man  who  possesses  a  religious 
sentiment,  and  the  Book  of  Psalms,  with  which 
every  Christian  is  more  or  less  familiar,  is  made  the 
starting-point  and  ground  of  the  argument.     The 


266      PASTORAL   AND   LITERARY 

mind  of  the  ordinary  worshipper  was,  at  the  time 
of  the  appearance  of  Dr.  Matheson's  book,  sorely 
distressed  by  the  fear  that  the  modern  conception 
of  nature  had  made  reHgion  impossible.  This  was 
the  man  that  Dr.  Matheson  appealed  to.  In  his 
earlier  book  he  deliberately  chose  for  his  audience 
the  thoughtful  and  the  learned.  In  his  later  volume 
he  selected  the  wider  public  for  his  hearers.  His 
appeal  to  both  was  successful  in  the  extreme.  No 
man  of  his  day  did  more  on  behalf  of  true  religion, 
in  relation  to  the  danger  that  threatened  it,  than 
Dr.  Matheson.  He  enabled  the  religious  public  to 
breathe  freely  once  more,  and  he  did  this  not  by 
stemming  the  new  tide  of  thought,  but  by  allowing 
it  to  spread  over  the  religious  sentiment  which 
absorbed  it.  The  writer,  in  this  volume,  discusses 
such  subjects  as  the  *'  Psalmist's  Argument  for 
God";  his  "View  of  the  Origin  of  Life"  and  of 
''Human  Insignificance"  ;  his  ''Ground  of  Religious 
Confidence  "  ;  his  "  Principle  of  Survival  and  Con- 
servation." He  shows  how,  when  the  sentiments 
of  the  religious  consciousness  come  into  contact  with 
the  views  of  evolution  on  the  same  subjects,  there 
is  no  real  conflict ;  the  older  truth  is  simply 
widened  and  deepened  by  the  impartatlon  of  the 
new.  The  success  of  the  volume  was  immediate 
and  deserved. 

In  1888  he  published  two  new  volumes.  Land- 
marks of  New   Testa77ient  Morality,  and  Voices  of 
the   Spirit ;    the   latter,  a  devotional    volume,  has 
already  been  referred  to.     Shortly  after  he  came  to 


PASTORAL   AND   LITERARY      267 

Edinbureh,  Dr.  Matheson  had  been  asked  to 
deliver  a  lecture  to  the  Church  of  Scotland  Young 
Men's  Guild ;  the  first  of  a  series  by  distinguished 
preachers.  He  chose  as  his  subject,  ''  The  Relation 
of  Christian  to  pre-Christian  Morality,"  and  this 
forms  the  title  of  the  first  chapter  of  his  new  book. 
In  his  preface  he  declares  his  aim  to  have  been  to 
compress  into  a  few  connected  chapters  what  seemed 
to  him  to  be  the  distinctive  and  salient  principles  of 
New  Testament  morality.  The  book  formed  one 
of  Nisbefs  Theological  Library,  and  in  it  such 
subjects  as  the  ''  Motives  of  Christian  Morality," 
the  ''Christian  View  of  Sin,"  the  ''Moral  Place  of 
Faith,"  the  "  Moral  Place  of  Prayer"  are  discussed. 
The  volume  is  full  of  vigorous  thought,  and  contains 
some  of  Dr.  Matheson's  most  characteristic  teaching. 
As  a  chapter  in  the  important  subject  of  Christian 
Ethics,  treating  it  in  its  fundamental  aspects,  it 
was  timely  in  its  appearance,  and  is  still  of  value. 

Two  years  afterwards  Dr.  Matheson  gathered 
together  and  published  in  volume  form  a  selection 
from  the  hymns  that  he  had  been  writing  at  irregular 
intervals  from  his  early  manhood,  and  published 
them  under  the  title  of  Sacred  Songs ;  and  about 
the  same  time,  in  1890,  there  appeared  what  many 
regard  as  his  most  important  book.  The  Spiritual 
Development  of  St.  Paul.  If  one  can  judge  of  its 
value  from  its  popularity  it  was  certainly  the  most 
successful  of  all  his  serious  efforts.  It  has  had  a 
larger  sale  than  any  of  his  other  books,  with  the 
exception  of  his  devotional  volumes  and  his  later 


268      PASTORAL   AND   LITERARY 

publications,  such  as  Studies  of  the  Portrait 
of  Christ,  and  The  Representative  Men  of  the  Bible. 
The  Apostle  Paul  would  seem  to  have  had  a 
wonderful  fascination  for  Dr.  Matheson.  Some 
of  his  earliest  articles  in  The  Expositor  have  him  as 
their  subject.  In  twelve  successive  issues  of  that 
magazine  there  appeared  from  his  pen  contributions 
on  the  "  Historical  Christ  of  St.  Paul,"  and  subse- 
quently, at  frequent  intervals,  he  wrote  on  various 
themes  suggested  by  the  writings  of  the  great 
apostle.  Wherein,  one  may  ask,  consisted  the 
charm  of  Paul  for  Dr.  Matheson  .^  An  answer 
might  be  found  in  the  fact  that  between  the  two 
there  must  have  been  a  close  intellectual  and 
spiritual  sympathy.  They  were  both  eager  spirits, 
full  of  enthusiasm  for  the  highest  things,  and  carried 
along  by  a  passion  of  thought  which  nothing  could 
stay.  They  had  both  a  tender  and  chivalrous  love 
for  their  Master,  and  they  had  penetrated  to  the 
secret  of  His  life  as  few  have  done  in  ancient  or 
modern  times.  Each  was  dissatisfied  until  he  made 
clear  to  himself  the  ground  of  his  belief,  and  had 
made  that  belief  a  living  reality  in  his  own  soul  and 
in  the  souls  of  others.  Even  in  their  style  of 
writing,  or  at  all  events  of  thinking,  there  is  a 
strong  similarity.  The  Aposde  to  the  Gentiles 
certainly  did  not  aim  at  that  finish  of  style  which 
characterised  his  modern  admirer,  but  in  their  love 
of  paradox  they  are  both  alike.  They  saw  at  a 
glance,  they  photographed  in  their  minds  an  idea 
or  a  truth,  and  they  cast  It  forth  In  what  seemed  to 


PASTORAL   AND   LITERARY      269 

be  an  inverted  form,  which  at  once  caught  the  eye 
and  riveted  the  attention,  and  only  on  reflection 
could  the  beholder  perceive  its  meaning  and 
appreciate  its  true  significance.  In  dealing  with 
the  characters  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments, 
even  with  those  which  had  caught  most  of  the  spirit 
of  Christ,  Dr.  Matheson  shows  no  hesitation  in 
pointing  out  their  limitations.  They  are  at  best  but 
broken  lights  of  the  great  Sun  that  they  reflected ; 
but  in  dealing  with  Paul  he  manifests  a  whole- 
hearted admiration,  and  if  he  points  out  defects  or 
failures  it  is  only  because  the  great  apostle  had 
not  as  yet  attained  to  his  full  development.  These 
defects  or  failures  simply  mark  stages  in  his  spiritual 
growth,  steps  in  his  religious  advancement.  The 
life  at  the  close  is  full,  rounded,  and  completed,  the 
brightest  and  most  precious  gem  in  the  crown  of 
Christian  discipleship. 

Now,  it  seems  to  me  that  there  is  one  feature 
common  to  the  Apostle  Paul  and  to  Dr.  Matheson 
in  which  the  latter  found  a  special  bond  of  union  : 
each  had  a  thorn  in  the  flesh,  and  in  both  cases 
the  thorn  was  the  same.  According  to  certain  critics, 
of  whom  Dr.  Matheson  was  one,  Paul  was  a  martyr 
to  defective  eyesight ;  and  the  chronicler  of  his 
spiritual  development  was  blind.  On  no  occasion 
does  Dr.  Matheson  refer  to  this  bond  of  union.  Of 
all  men  he  was  the  most  reticent  with  regard  to 
his  own  afflictions,  and  so  far  as  his  great  affliction 
was  concerned  he  was,  for  the  most  part,  absolutely 
silent.     He  never  bemoaned  his  fate ;  he  made  no 


270      PASTORAL   AND   LITERARY 

parade  of  his  calamity,  nor  did  he  even  show  any- 
natural  pride  in  the  triumph  which  he  won  over 
it.  Paul  was  almost  as  reticent,  but  now  and  again 
he  had  to  speak  out,  because  in  his  case  the  thorn 
in  the  flesh  was  made  a  cause  of  reproach,  and  this 
reproach  he  in  the  end  was  able  to  turn  to  the 
glory  of  God  and  his  own  spiritual  advancement. 
It  is  well  for  us  that  he  did  give  indications  of  what 
he  suffered,  and  of  the  experiences  which  he  passed 
through,  before  he  attained  his  final  victory  ;  and 
the  great  and  permanent  value  of  Dr.  Matheson's 
book  lies  in  the  fact  that  he  makes  this  thorn  in 
the  flesh  the  oruiding^  element  in  tracinsr  Paul's 
spiritual  development.  The  outward  affliction  and 
the  inward  experience,  the  physical  defect  and  the 
spiritual  sufferings,  would  seem  to  go  hand  in  hand. 
The  one  reacts  upon  the  other,  and  together  they 
account  for  the  development  of  Paul's  inner  life 
and  of  his  religious  views. 

A  book  that  has  taken  so  strong  a  hold  on 
the  public  mind,  and  one  possessing  so  many 
exceptional  qualities,  ought  to  receive  a  fuller 
notice  than  I  intend,  in  this  connection,  to  give 
it.  My  reason  is  that  in  an  article  which  Dr. 
Matheson  wrote,  seven  years  afterwards,  to  a 
volume  issued  by  Dr.  Lyman  Abbott,  of  New 
York,  on  The  Prophets  of  the  Christian  Faith, 
he  gives  a  resume  of  his  book  on  St.  Paul  which 
for  fulness  and  brilliance  of  treatment  far  exceeds 
what  any  other  might  accomplish.  In  that  sketch, 
extending  to  twelve  pages  only,  he  gives  the  gist 


PASTORAL   AND   LITERARY      271 

of  the.  larger  volume,  and  anyone  who  wishes  to 
know,  at  a  glance,  his  mind  on  the  subject  will  find 
it  there.  But  one  thing  he  does  not  do  ;  he  does 
not  trace  the  close  resemblance  between  Paul's 
spiritual  development  and  his  own.  It  is  quite 
possible,  of  course,  that  in  writing  his  book  he 
was  altogether  unconscious  of  that  resemblance ; 
but  the  very  fact  that,  according  to  his  own  con- 
fession, he  lingered  over  the  composition  of  the 
volume,  spending  two  years  on  its  writing  and 
many  more  on  its  thinking,  that  of  all  his  books 
it  bears  the  most  traces  of  loving  care,  patient 
treatment,  and  sympathetic  handling,  show  that  the 
subject  had  a  fascination  for  him  which  cannot  be 
explained  on  literary  or  theological  grounds  merely  ; 
it  can  only  be  accounted  for  on  reasons  that  were 
personal. 

Dr.  Matheson  points  out,  to  begin  with,  that 
Paul's  first  conception  of  Christianity  was  absolutely 
different  from  that  of  the  other  apostles.  His  first 
vision  of  Christ  was  in  the  air ;  theirs  on  the  earth. 
He  knew  Him,  at  the  start,  in  His  resurrection 
glory ;  they  as  the  Man  of  Galilee.  His  first 
glimpse  was  of  His  divinity  ;  theirs  of  His  humanity. 
The  writer  then  goes  on,  in  a  series  of  chapters 
bristling  with  suggestive  thoughts  and  full  of  the 
subtlest  yet  conclusive  reasoning,  to  show  how 
the  development  of  Paul's  spiritual  life  was  a 
descent,  a  coming  down  from  heaven  to  earth, 
from  the  divine  to  the  human,  from  the  conception 
of  a  glorified  Christ  to  a  Saviour  of  the  world.     In 


272      PASTORAL   AND   LITERARY 

pursuance  of  his  argument  Dr.  Matheson  shows 
how,  according  to  Paul,  Christ  is  the  Head  of  the 
universe,  of  the  state,  of  society,  and  of  the  family  ; 
not  only  coming  into  touch  with,  but  sanctifying, 
the  commonest  duties  and  things  of  life.  His  flight 
is  towards  the  gospel  of  humanitarianism,  of  saving 
the  world  by  being  its  servant,  of  redeeming  man 
by  ministering  to  him,  of  gaining  the  crown  by 
bearing  the  cross.  The  resurrection  Christ  of 
Paul's  completed  journey  is  the  Christ  of  sight 
who  has  passed  into  that  of  faith,  who  again  has 
passed  from  that  of  faith  to  that  of  love,  and  from 
that  of  love  to  that  of  hope.  Hope  for  the  in- 
dividual, hope  for  the  family,  hope  for  society,  hope 
for  the  state,  hope  for  the  world,  hope  for  the 
universe.  Christ  is  the  Head  of  all.  *'In  Him 
all  are  gathered  together,"  and  this  gathering  in 
has  taken  place  through  Christ's  emptying  of 
Himself,  through  taking  upon  Himself  the  form 
of  a  servant,  and  becoming  obedient  unto  death, 
even  the  death  on  the  Cross. 

Now,  a  close  follower  of  Dr.  Matheson's  career 
as  a  preacher  and  a  writer  is  bound  to  find  in  it 
the  counterpart  of  the  development  which  he  traces 
in  the  life  of  the  Apostle  Paul.  He  too  began  with 
the  worship  of  a  glorified  Christ.  Reflecting  on 
the  sermons  which,  during  his  early  ministry,  he 
preached  at  Innellan,  and  those  which  crown  his 
later  life,  one  is  conscious  of  a  progress  which, 
in  its  own  sphere  and  on  its  own  lines,  is  similar 
to  that  through  which  the  great   Apostle  of  the 


PASTORAL   AND    LITERARY      273 

Gentiles  passed.     Early  hearers  of  Dr.   Matheson 
were   carried  up   into  the    seventh   heaven  by  his 
flashes  of  thought,  by  his  spiritual  aspirations,  by 
his  imaginative  flights.     But  not  infrequently  they 
were  left  there.      In  his   sermons  there  may  have 
been  that  lack  of  reality,  of  food  for  common  life, 
which    characterised    the    early    preaching   of    the 
Apostle   Paul.     But,   as   the    years   advanced,    the 
thought,  without  losing   its  strength  or  buoyancy, 
became  more  sober.     It  grew  more  into  touch  with 
the  experiences  of  men.     The  preacher  descended 
to  the  earth  and  took  up   its   common  sights  and 
sounds,  put  himself  into  sympathy  with  the  ordinary 
lot   of   human    existence  ;    nay,    he    did    more,    he 
showed    a   tender   concern    for   the    sorrows    and 
sufferings  of  men,  and  brought  the  gospel  of  Divine 
love  to  bear,   with    its  redeeming  grace,  upon  the 
calamities  of  existence,  and  showed  how  the  love 
of  the   Father  as  revealed  in  the  death  of  the  Son 
transformed  the   experiences  of  His  children   and 
made  them  the  means  of  spiritual  advancement  and 
religious  growth.      In   other  words,  the  Gospel   of 
Dr.    Matheson    became    more    humanitarian,    and 
showed  how    the    Cross    of   Christ   sanctified    and 
glorified    human    existence.       A    similar   develop- 
ment    can     be    seen     in     Dr.     Matheson     as    an 
author.       His     earliest     books    and    articles    deal 
with    subjects    which    are   purely    theological    and 
philosophical.     They   are   themes  that   are,  so   to 
speak,  in  the  air ;  they  interest  the  mind  of  man, 
and  at  first  sight  they  do  not  seem  to  have  much 
i8 


274      PASTORAL   AND   LITERARY 

relation  to  or  influence  on  his  life.  But  as  the 
years  advanced  new  subjects  present  themselves. 
They  are  in  a  sense  more  real,  more  human, 
more  personal.  *'  The  Growth  of  the  Spirit  of 
Christianity"  gives  place  to  ''The  Spiritual  Develop- 
ment of  St.  Paul,"  ''  The  Natural  Elements  of 
Revealed  Theology"  to  **The  Portrait  of  Christ" 
and  ''The  Men  and  Women  of  the  Bible," 
religion  to  theology,  and  religion  as  a  spiritual 
development  to  its  practical  expression  in  the 
life  of  man. 

But  what  I  regard  as  the  personal  note  in  the 
book  is  by  far  the  most  interesting  and  suggestive. 
The  opening  chapters  deal  at  considerable  length 
with  Paul's  special  affliction,  which  he  indirectly 
refers  to  as  a  "thorn  in  the  flesh."  Dr.  Matheson 
is  at  particular  pains  to  show,  by  a  process  of  very 
careful  and  thorough  exegesis,  what  this  particular 
affliction  may  have  been,  and  he  comes  to  the 
conclusion  that  it  was  defective  eyesight.  In  this 
is  to  be  found  Paul's  thorn  in  the  flesh.  A  number 
of  the  reviewers  disputed  this  conclusion,  but  none  of 
them  did  so  in  more  than  a  doubting  way.  For  us, 
however,  the  suggestive  point  is  that  Dr.  Matheson 
held  this  opinion.  For  us  the  luminous  fact  is  not 
the  conclusion  which  Dr.  Matheson  came  to,  but 
the  manner  in  which  he  uses  it  to  interpret  the 
spiritual  development  of  the  apostle.  Taking  his 
stand  on  the  apostle's  confession  that  he  "  besought 
the  Lord  thrice  "  to  deliver  him  from  his  calamity, 
the  author  searches  for  the  occasions  in  the  life  of 


PASTORAL   AND   LITERARY      275 

Paul  when  this  prayer  was  uttered.  Each,  he 
believes,  marks  a  crisis  in  the  spiritual  growth  of 
the  apostle,  and  if  one  can  lay  his  hand  on  the 
particular  moment  when  the  cry  for  relief  was 
uttered,  he  can  also  discover  the  stage  in  his 
development  which  Paul  had  reached.  The  theo- 
logical views  of  the  apostle,  his  interpretation 
of  Christianity,  and  his  own  relation  to  it  as  an 
individual,  will  be  found  to  synchronise  with  each 
particular  cry. 

The  first  step,  accordingly,  in  Paul's  spiritual 
struggle  Dr.  Matheson  would  see  in  the  apostle's 
glorification  of  the  flesh,  in  his  belief,  inherited 
from  his  Jewish  training,  that  the  servant  of  the 
Divine  must  be  flawless,  not  only  in  spirit  but  also 
in  body.  Paul  had  been  taught  to  believe  that  a 
physical  defect  was  a  mark  of  the  Divine  anger, 
and  how  could  he,  with  his  impaired  organ  of 
vision,  hope  to  be  an  accredited  missionary  to  the 
Gentiles.  Paul's  solution  of  this  difficulty  Dr. 
Matheson  would  find  in  the  note  which  he  struck 
in  his  earliest  preaching.  The  apostle  at  this  stage 
shared  the  belief  that  the  Lord  was  at  hand.  The 
troubles  of  the  present  time  would  soon  be  over ; 
the  millennium  was  near,  and  by  the  glory  which 
was  about  to  be  revealed  to  waiting  souls  the 
sufferings  of  life  would  be  obliterated.  The  soul 
of  the  believer  would  be  caught  up  into  the  heavens, 
and  the  bodily  sufferings  of  earth  would  give  place 
to  transports  of  eternal  joy. 

The  second  stage  in  the  struggle  Dr.  Matheson 


276      PASTORAL   AND   LITERARY 

would  see  in  Paul's  hatred  of  the  flesh,  in  the 
warfare  which  he  waged  against  it  during  the 
period  of  his  Galatian  ministry.  If  his  Epistles 
to  the  Thessalonians  afford  a  key  to  his  attitude  in 
the  first,  his  Epistle  to  the  Galatians  reveals  the 
staee  which  he  had  reached  in  his  second 
struggle.  The  vision  of  the  resurrection  Christ 
was  beginning  to  fade ;  the  speedy  deliverance 
which  he  had  hoped  for  was  not  to  be  his  ;  the 
battle  of  life  must  be  fought  to  a  finish  ;  his  thorn 
in  the  flesh  must  still  be  endured.  Well  then,  said 
the  apostle,  let  me  endure.  If  the  flesh  lusteth 
against  the  Spirit,  and  the  Spirit  against  the  flesh, 
let  me  trample  the  flesh  under  foot ;  let  me  keep 
my  body  under  ;  let  me  ''  beat  it  black  and  blue." 
My  prayer  is  not  to  be  answered  as  I  expected  ; 
my  defective  eyesight  is  not  to  be  improved  ;  well 
then,  let  my  prayer  be  answered  in  another  way. 
I  shall  endeavour  to  forget  my  thorn  ;  I  shall  do 
my  work  in  spite  of  it ;  the  mission  of  my  life  shall 
not  fail  because  of  physical  suffering.  I  shall  fulfil 
my  God  -  appointed  task  in  the  face  of  every 
hardship  and  of  every  pain. 

The  third  stage  of  the  struggle  has  still  to  be 
noted.  The  apostle's  cry  was  heard  at  last ;  and 
his  prayer,  like  all  prayers,  was  answered,  not  in 
the  imperfect  way  in  which  he  had  at  first  desired, 
but  in  a  manner  far  beyond  his  thinking  or  his 
asking.  In  this  third  stage,  which  is  marked  by 
the  Epistles  to  the  Corinthians  and  the  Pastoral 
Epistles,  which  close  the  apostle's  career  on  earth. 


PASTORAL   AND   LITERARY      277 

Dr.  Matheson  sees  Paul's  final  triumph.  His 
first  solution  was  in  being  lifted  up  from  the  earth  ; 
his  second  in  despising  the  earth  ;  and  his  third  in 
loving  it.  In  other  words,  he  had  now  come  to 
see  that  the  crosses  of  life,  and  his  special  cross, 
could  only  be  understood,  only  be  borne,  in  the 
light  of  the  Cross  of  Christ.  The  Man  of  Sorrows 
bore  with  patience  not  only  a  thorn,  but  a  crown  of 
thorns  ;  He  conquered  by  submitting ;  He  proved 
victorious  by  yielding;  nay,  He  found  in  the 
afflictions  of  the  present  time  the  means  for  His 
spiritual  growth.  His  attitude  accordingly  towards 
the  trials  of  life  was  one  of  love,  a  love  which  in 
the  end  was  crowned  by  a  hope  that  those  who 
had  learned  of  Him  would,  through  patient 
endurance,  also  conquer  and  be  awarded  the  palm 
of  victory.  Hence,  in  the  last  stage  of  Paul's  life 
Dr.  Matheson  sees  the  apostle's  true  solution  of 
his  difficulty,  an  answer  to  his  prayer;  for  his 
attitude  towards  the  homely  things  of  life,  the 
troubles  and  trials  of  man's  lot  in  the  world,  had 
changed,  and  the  note  of  his  teaching  became  that 
of  the  gospel  of  his  Master:  ''Perfect  through 
sufferinor." 

I  have  dwelt  at  some  length  on  these  points, 
for  the  reason  already  stated,  because  in  them 
there  is  a  personal  note.  The  author  in  thus 
interpreting  Paul's  spiritual  experiences  was  also 
tracing  his  own.  He  may  have  done  so  quite 
unconsciously,  but  all  the  same  the  result  of  his 
analysis  throws  a  flood  of  light  on  his  own  life. 


278      PASTORAL   AND   LITERARY 

At  an  earlier  stao^e  I  endeavoured  to  account  for 
Dr.  Matheson's  Christian  optimism,  and  I  did  so 
in  much  the  same  way  as  he  accounts  for  Paul's. 
One  was  dimly  conscious  of  the  struggle  through 
which  he  passed,  and  of  the  battle  which  he 
fought.  On  a  priori  grounds  It  was  found  that  he 
could  have  conquered  only  as  a  Christian ;  but 
here,  so  to  speak,  he  gives  us  a  bit  of  his  auto- 
biography ;  he  shows  us,  in  tracing  the  spiritual 
experiences  of  Paul,  what  his  own  were.  Indeed, 
I  believe  that,  having  passed  through  them  first, 
having  reached  the  goal  before  he  came  to  the 
study  of  the  apostle's  life,  he  was  able  to  under- 
stand that  life  through  a  sympathy  born  of  a 
common  trial  and  a  common  victory.  It  was  the 
Cross  of  Christ  undoubtedly  which  Interpreted  for 
Dr.  Matheson  the  meaning  of  his  thorn  In  the 
flesh.  In  the  light  of  the  Cross  It  became  plain. 
This  explains  his  Christian  optimism,  his  en- 
thusiasm, his  cheerful  outlook  upon  life  and  upon 
the  world.  This  also  accounts  for  his  message  of 
comfort  and  consolation  to  the  weary  and  to  the 
heavy  laden.  By  his  lips  and  by  his  pen  he  spoke 
the  word  of  hopeful  submission  to  the  sufferer  on 
the  bed  of  pain,  and  of  steadfast  courage  to  the 
soldier  eno^ao^ed  In  the  Christian  warfare.  To  the  man 
of  sorrows  and  to  the  man  of  the  world  his  messas^e 
was  the  same  :  "  Fight  the  good  fight  of  faith, 
lay  hold  on  eternal  life  "  ;  accept  your  thorn  in  the 
flesh  ;  the  troubles  and  trials  of  the  present  time, 
not  as  messengers  of  Satan  sent  to  buffet  you,  but 


PASTOHAL   AND   LITERARY      279 

as  angels  of  mercy  leading  you  in  triumph  to  your 
home  on  high. 

In  his  next  work  Dr.  Matheson  reverted  to 
a  subject  which  had  been  of  much  interest  to 
him  from  his  early  days  at  Innellan.  Some  of  his 
first  contributions  to  periodical  literature  and  his 
third  important  work,  Natural  Elements  of 
Revealed  Theology,  show  that  the  old  religions 
had  a  special  attraction  for  him.  He  manifested 
in  his  Baird  Lecture  a  familiarity  with  certain  of 
the  pre-Christian  religions  which  was  a  proof  of 
very  careful  research  and  prolonged  thought ;  and 
in  1882  he  brought  his  studies  to  a  point  in  his 
lecture  on  "Confucianism,"  one  of  the  St.  Giles' 
Lectures  on  The  Faiths  of  the  World.  This 
was  a  very  fine  effort,  and  it  brought  his  name 
before  the  public  in  a  new  relation.  The  subject 
had  evidently  been  growing  in  his  mind,  and  he 
extended  his  studies,  so  that  in  1892  he  was  able 
to  publish  a  volume  of  considerable  size  and 
importance  on  the  ancient  religions.  Its  title, 
The  Distinctive  Messages  of  the  Old  Religions, 
indicated  its  purpose  and  its  scope,  and  he  was 
careful,  in  the  preface,  to  make  his  intention 
perfectly  clear.  He  says  that  his  design  was  not 
to  describe  the  old  religions,  but  to  photograph 
their  spirit.  "  By  the  distinctive  message  of  a 
religion,"  he  says,  "  I  mean  not  an  enumeration  of 
its  points,  but  a  selection  of  the  one  point  In  which 
it  differs  from  all  others.  My  design,  therefore,  is 
more  limited  than  that  of  some  volumes  of  equal 


280      PASTORAL   AND   LITERARY 

size.  I  do  not  seek  the  permanent  element  of 
religion  with  the  Bishop  of  Ripon,  nor  the  uncon- 
scious Christianity  of  Paganism  with  F.  D.  Manvill, 
nor  the  moral  ideal  of  the  nations  with  Miss  Julia 
Wedgwood  :  I  seek  only  to  emphasise  the  dividing 
line  which  constitutes  the  boundary  between  each 
religion  and  all  besides." 

The  author  introduces  his  subject  by  a  lengthened 
inquiry  into  the  origin  of  religion,  and  its  common 
element.  From  this  he  passes  to  a  consideration 
of  the  distinctive  elements  of  the  ereat  relieions  of 
the  ancient  world  ;  and  in  his  concluding  chapter  he 
considers  the  purpose  of  Christianity  in  relation  to 
these  religions,  and  declares  that  its  mission  is  one 
of  reconciliation.  It  is  in  this  that  one  sees  the 
value  of  the  book.  From  the  point  of  view  of  Dr. 
Matheson's  biography  it  is  a  fresh  proof  of  his  own 
message  to  the  world,  which  also  was  one  of  recon- 
ciliation. The  religion  of  Christ  was  to  his  mind 
the  great  ingatherer ;  in  Him  all  "things  stand 
together,"  and  in  His  religion  he  finds  a  meeting- 
place  for  the  messages  of  the  nations.  The  con- 
cluding paragraph  of  his  book  indicates  what 
to  his  mind  these  messages  were,  and  also  the 
message  of  Christianity  towards  them.  The 
religion  of  Christ,  he  believes,  ought  to  have  a 
peculiar  interest  in  the  faiths  of  the  past. 

They  are  not  to  her  dead  faiths ;  they  are  not  even 
modernised.  They  are  preserved  inviolable  as  parts  of 
herself — more  inviolable  than  they  would  have  been  if 
she  had  never  come.     Christianity  has  claimed  to  be  "  the 


PASTORAL   AND   LITERARY      281 

manifold  wisdom  of  God."  In  this  ascription  she  has 
been  candid  to  the  past.  She  has  not  denied  its  wisdom  ; 
she  has  only  aspired  to  enfold  it.  She  has  not  sought 
to  derogate  from  the  doctrines  of  antiquity  ;  she  has  only 
sought  to  diminish  their  antagonisms.  China  may  keep 
her  materialism,  and  India  may  retain  her  mysticism  ; 
Rome  may  grasp  her  strength,  and  Greece  may  nurse 
her  beauty  ;  Persia  may  tell  of  the  opposition  to  God's 
power,  and  Egypt  may  sing  of  His  pre-eminence  even 
amidst  the  tombs  :  but  for  each  and  all  there  is  a  seat  in 
the  Christian  Pantheon,  and  a  justification  in  the  light  of 
the  manifold  wisdom  of  God. 

A  break  of  four  years  in  Dr.  Matheson's  literary- 
activity  now  intervened.  It  was  the  longest  break, 
and  for  this  very  reason  it  may  not  be  without 
its  significance.  Four  years  elapsed  between  the 
publication  of  The  Distinctive  Messages  of  the  Old 
Religions  and  his  next  book.  The  Lady  Ecclesia. 
It  was  in  1896  that  he  gave  it  to  the  world,  and 
it  made  its  entrance  under  the  auspices  of  new 
publishers.  For  a  number  of  years  his  books  had 
been  published  by  the  Blackwoods.  T.  &  T.  Clark, 
James  Nisbet  &  Co.,  Cassell,  and  James  Clarke  & 
Co.,  had  also  in  turn  published  one  or  other  of  his 
books.  With  all  of  these  firms  he  was  on  the  best 
of  footings,  and  maintained  his  friendly  relations 
with  them  to  the  end  ;  but  he  now  became  associ- 
ated with  H odder  &  Stoughton,  and  the  remaining 
volumes  written  by  him,  with  the  exception  of  one 
or  two  devotional  books,  were  published  by  them. 
The  break  of  four  years,  I  have  remarked,  may 
be  regarded  as  significant,  for  The  Lady  Ecclesia 
marks  a  new  departure,  and   the  books   that   he 


282      PASTORAL   AND    LITERARY 

subsequently  wrote  may  be  said  to  be  but  a 
development  of  the  lines  which  he  in  that  volume 
laid  down.  We  now  find  him  dealing  with  subjects 
that  are  purely  religious  and  personal.  He  had 
advanced  to  the  last  stage  in  his  literary  develop- 
ment, in  which  he  would  seem  to  be  drawn  to 
themes  of  universal  import  and  to  characters  that 
come  into  close  touch  with  human  life  on  every 
side.  Especially  was  he  attracted  by  the  central 
figure  in  Bible  history,  Jesus  Christ  Himself. 
The  life  and  teaching  of  the  Saviour  became  to 
him  the  one  theme  worthy  to  be  dealt  with,  and 
the  volumes  that  he  wrote  on  this  and  kindred 
topics  were  the  most  popular  and  influential  ever 
published  by  him.  His  progress,  like  that  of  the 
apostle,  was  a  descent.  He  began  with  subjects 
of  lofty  thought ;  he  contented  himself  at  the  end 
with  lowly  themes,  but  these  themes  after  all  were 
the  only  vital  ones,  for  they  were  common  to  the 
heart  of  humanity,  and  came  into  contact  with 
man's  experience  at  every  point.  The  last  note 
sounded  by  him  was  the  same  as  that  struck  by 
the  angels  :  "  Peace  on  earth,  goodwill  towards 
men."  Religion  in  common  life  came  to  be  the 
absorbing  topic  of  his  latest  thought  and  writing. 

The  Lady  Ecclesia  is  an  allegory.  For  beauty 
of  thought,  for  chasteness  of  style,  for  sustained 
interest,  it  would  be  difficult  in  its  own  class  to  find 
its  equal.  Its  subject  is  the  development  of  the 
Spirit  of  Christ  in  the  Church  and  in  the  individual ; 
a   restatement   in   allegorical    form    of  one    of  his 


PASTORAL   AND   LITERARY      283 

earliest  books.  Indeed,  it  might  have  as  a  sub- 
title, ''The  Christ  of  History  and  the  Christ  of 
Experience,"  and  no  one  can  read  it  without  finding 
a  world  of  light  shed  both  upon  the  story  of  the 
Church,  especially  during  its  earlier  struggles  and 
triumphs,  and  upon  his  own  Christian  experience. 
Not  only  does  it  make  plain  different  epochs  in  the 
history  of  the  Church  and  in  the  struggles  of  the 
individual  soul  towards  a  fuller  realisation  of  the 
spirit  of  Christ,  but  it  also  unfolds,  sometimes 
with  startling  effect,  the  inner  meaning  of  Christian 
doctrine,  and  gives  a  conception  of  Christianity  as 
a  whole  which  is  certain  to  find  an  abiding  place 
in  religious  literature. 

Not  its  least  significant  note  is  the  light  which 
it  throws  upon  his  own  life.  The  kingdom  which 
The  Lady  Ecclesia  has  inherited  from  her  ancestors, 
and  which  forms  the  background  of  the  allegory,  is 
an  island,  and  the  book  abounds  in  descriptions  of 
the  great  ocean  which  surrounds  it.  The  sighing 
of  the  winds,  the  moaning  of  the  waves,  the  passing 
to  and  fro  of  ships,  and  the  infinite  distance  that 
lay  beyond,  are  again  and  again  referred  to ;  and 
cause  the  reader  to  inquire,  Whence  come  these 
allusions  ?  what  memories  in  the  mind  of  the  blind 
poet-preacher  do  they  recall  ?  The  answer  may  be 
found  in  the  following  extract  from  Dr.  Sime's 
reminiscences.  It  refers  to  the  old  Innellan  days, 
to  the  times  when  Dr.  Matheson  sat  in  his  manse 
overlooking  the  firth,  and  commanding  a  view  of 
the  sea  opening  wide  in  the  distance.      "  At  times," 


284      PASTORAL   AND   LITERARY 

says  the  doctor,  the  moaning  of  the  sea,  with  the 
sighing  and  sobbing  of  the  sea  breezes  through  the 
trees  below,  would  come  into  his  study  where  he 
was  sitting,  perhaps  pierced  ever  and  anon  by  the 
solemn  monotone  of  the  whistle  of  an  ocean  steamer 
passing  along. 

"  I  often  listen  to  that  music,"  he  said  one  evening, 
shortly  after  my  arrival,  and  as  we  stood  together  at  the 
window.  It  was  a  breezy  evening,  the  sun  setting  towards 
Arran,  with  a  radiant  shaft  of  light  up  the  firth.  White 
horses  were  racing  athwart  the  sea  and  breaking  on  the 
shore  with  a  muffled  roar,  and  a  black  showery  cloud 
hovered  over  the  far-off  town  of  Largs.  Round  Toward 
Point  a  brown-sailed  barge,  leaning  well  over  with  reefed, 
rounded  sail,  fled  up  the  firth  like  a  bird,  and  was  quickly 
followed  by  the  Wemyss  Bay  boat ;  whilst  an  ocean 
steamer  glided  majestically  past  Innellan  through  the 
white  horses,  the  smoke  of  the  steamer  curling  in  the 
distance  prettily,  after  its  work  was  done.  The  music 
that  was  coming  into  the  room  was  massive  and  grand. 

"  That  weird  music  comes  up  here  from  the  ocean  like 
the  far-off  music  of  another  world,  a  symphony  of  great 
Nature.  How  varied  and  multiform  it  is  !  I  often  listen  to 
it,  when  sitting  here  alone,  or  perhaps  sometimes  in  the 
depth  of  night ;  it  puts  one  in  reverie.  And  that  ?  Listen  ! 
The  monotone  of  that  passing  steamer,  decisive  and  clear, 
how  finely  it  blends  with  Nature's  majestic  music  !  What 
liner  is  it  ?  " 

"  An  Allan  liner,  I  think,  for  Canada  !  The  ships,  the 
lights,  the  shadows,  pearly  edged  distant  cloudlets,  the 
breezes, — are  passing  through  the  firth  like  thoughts 
through  one's  consciousness." 

"  Exactly  !  One's  consciousness  is  more  lasting  than 
the  firth  itself,  with  a  character  of  its  own  which  we 
bring  into  the  world,  unfledged.  It  is  an  eternal  fact, 
deeper  than  force  or  matter,  and  altogether  distinct  from 
either ;  for  that  alone  I  reverence  and  hope  for  the  utmost 
wreck  of  a  man  that  I  meet.     That  passing  syren-note  of 


PASTORAL   AND   LITERARY      285 

your  passing  steamer,  faintly  pealing  through  the  breezes, 
is  beautiful,  is  it  not  ?  It  is  a  part  of  the  massive  music 
we  hear,  and  perhaps  the  grandest.  It  reminds  me  of  the 
story  of  Goethe  when  he  was  on  the  Alps.  On  the  whole, 
it  seems  he  liked  best,  not  the  mountains  and  their  snowy 
peaks  in  the  sky,  but  a  manufactory  in  one  of  the  valleys. 
The  unceasing  humming  of  the  spinning-wheel  sounded 
in  his  ears  in  such  a  place,  as  never  before,  as  the  Music 
of  the  Spheres.  No  wonder,  then,  that  Carlyle  so  valued 
Goethe.  It  was  unquestionably  the  harmony  of  the 
spheres  he  suddenly  heard ;  and  in  the  valleys,  mind  you ; 
think  of  that !  So  is  that  symphony  of  Nature  we  are 
listening  to,  with  the  occasional  syren-note;  but  in  the 
most  solitary  clachan  of  our  mountains  and  glens,  you 
will  sometimes  see — I  daresay  you  have  already  seen  it — 
the  sweet  light  and  the  unruffled  life  of  heaven  itself. 
Heaven  sometimes  begins  here,  and  immortality." 

The  same  year  saw  a  fresh  volume  of  Medita- 
tions from  his  pen,  Words  by  the  Wayside,  which 
has  been  translated  into  German.  A  year  later,  in 
1897,  he  published  a  small  Christmas  book,  The 
Bible  Definition  of  Religion^  based  on  Micah  vi.  8, 
and  a  larger  volume,  Sidelights  from  Patmos, 
This  latter  book  he  describes  as  *'  Flashes  of 
modern  suggestion  from  the  ancient  Apocalypse." 
Many  of  its  chapters  originally  appeared  as  articles 
in  The  Expositor,  and  it  was  at  the  suggestion  of 
the  editor  of  that  magazine  that  Dr.  Matheson 
collected  them,  and,  with  some  fresh  additions  to 
their  number,  brought  them  out  in  book  form. 
He  remarks  :  '*  I  believe  the  design  of  St.  John  in 
Patmos  was  to  state  the  principles  which  would 
regulate  the  good  time  coming.  He  wishes  to 
indicate  what  in  any  world  would  be  to  him  the 


286      PASTORAL  AND   LITERARY 

consummation  of  happiness.  He  does  so  some- 
times in  sober  language,  sometimes  in  allegoric 
symbols.  I  have  made  a  few  selections  both  from 
the  sober  language  and  from  the  allegoric  symbols, 
with  a  view  of  testing  the  adaptation  of  the  picture  to 
our  modern  ideas  of  optimism.  The  other  ques- 
tion I  wish  to  consider  in  these,  otherwise  dis- 
connected, chapters  is.  Whether  St.  John's  ideal  is 
still  our  ideal ;  whether  we  should  still  accept  his 
principles  as  those  which  should  regulate  the  good 
time  coming  ?  " 

The  success  of  the  volume  was  an  assurance  of 
the  author  having  answered  the  question,  which  he 
put  to  himself,  in  a  satisfactory  manner.  The 
subject  suited  his  mind ;  it  was  quite  in  keeping 
with  his  own  method ;  and  the  fresh  light  which 
he  threw  on  passages  that  had  been  a  source  of 
difficulty  to  generations  of  readers,  secured  him 
heartfelt  thanks  from  every  quarter.  He  received 
many  letters  of  gratitude,  and  with  such  an  effort 
he  could  very  well  close  his  literary  record  as 
minister  of  St.  Bernard's. 


CHAPTER   XI 

DR.  MATHESON  AT  HOME 

Admirers  of  Dr.  Matheson  will,  in  the  days  to 
come,  seek  out  the  house  in  St.  Bernard's  Crescent, 
where  for  twenty  years  he  lived  and  laboured.  It 
was  the  third  which  he  occupied  since  he  became  a 
minister.  For  the  first  few  years  at  Innellan  he 
resided  at  Labrador  House,  until  his  manse  was 
built,  and  during  the  whole  period  of  his  residence 
in  Edinburgh,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  weeks 
towards  its  close,  19  St.  Bernard's  Crescent  was 
his  home.  The  crescent  itself  is  quiet  and 
dignified,  having  a  noble  front  of  Doric  pillars, 
which  makes  it  one  of  the  most  distinctive  buildings 
even  in  Edinburgh.  The  crescent,  in  and  around 
which  many  men  eminent  in  art  and  literature 
have  resided,  had  an  interesting  origin.  "  Three- 
quarters  of  a  century  ago  its  site  was  part  of  the 
estate  of  the  great  painter.  Sir  Henry  Raeburn. 
Walking  one  day  with  the  owner,  another  great 
painter.  Sir  David  Wilkie,  suggested  to  him  that 
he  should  build  on  each  side  of  the  double  row  of 
elms,    a   crescent,    in    the   purest   style    of    Greek 

287 


288        DR.  MATHESON  AT  HOME 

architecture.  Sir  Henry  took  his  brother  artist's 
advice,  and  the  resuh  is  perhaps  unequalled  in  a 
range  of  private  houses.  Within  the  railed,  grassy 
enclosure  in  the  centre  are  the  remains  of  the 
avenue  of  elm  trees,  now  reduced  to  the  sacred 
number  of  seven,  whose  branches  are  dotted  in 
spring-time  with  the  nests  of  cawing  rooks  ;  hence 
the  local  name,  '  Craw  Crescent' "  Among  the 
famous  men  who  at  one  time  or  another  resided  in 
the  near  neighbourhood  were  Sir  James  Simpson, 
the  famous  physician  ;  Sir  John  Watson  Gordon, 
President  of  the  Royal  Scottish  Academy ;  the 
great  Christopher  North  ;  Robert  Chambers,  the 
publisher ;  Horatio  Macculloch,  the  artist ;  and 
Thomas  Carlyle,  the  first  eighteen  months  of  his 
married  life  having  been  spent  at  No.  21  Comely 
Bank,  hard  by.  The  district  had  seen  better  days. 
Right  beneath  Dr.  Matheson's  study,  which  looked 
to  the  back,  was  a  slum  quarter ;  and  his  windows, 
which  were  double-cased,  looked  down  upon  a 
public-house,  whose  sign-board  boasted  of  his  own 
surname.  But  he  chose  the  house  for  its  spacious- 
ness, and  for  its  proximity  to  his  church  and  to 
his  sphere  of  parochial  labours.  It  suited  him 
admirably  in  every  respect  until  the  end,  when  he 
migrated  to  a  new  house  which  he  had  bought  in 
Belgrave  Crescent,  one  of  the  finest  residential 
districts  in  Edinburgh,  but  which,  alas,  he  did  not 
live  long  to  occupy. 

It  is  natural  that  many  should  like  to  know 
how    Dr.    Matheson,    with    his   physical    infirmity, 


DR.  MATHESON  AT  HOME        289 

was  able  to  accomplish  so  great  and  so  varied  a 
work  during  the  thirteen  years  of  his  active  ministry 
at  St.   Bernard's.     The   chief  factor,  undoubtedly, 
in    his    harmonious,    successful,  and    marvellously 
fruitful  life,  was  his  sister,   Miss  Matheson.     The 
world  will  never  know  what  she  was  to  her  brother 
during  those  years  of  incessant  toil  and  strenuous 
effort.     She  shielded  him  from  the  worries  that  are 
the  lot  of  those  who,  as  parish  ministers,  think  and 
toil  for  their  people.     In  her  hands  he  knew  that 
his  household  affairs  were  safe,  and  his  domestic 
peace  secure.     In  every  movement  of  a  congrega- 
tional or  parochial  nature,  where  a  woman's  hand 
should  be  seen  or  felt,  she  took  a  leading  part,  and, 
in  the  social  life  in  which  he  had  to  mingle,  her 
tactful   and  gentle  manner  smoothed    over   every 
difficulty.       With    this    safe    anchorage    he    could 
devote   himself   unreservedly   to   his   own    special 
work,  in  the  full  knowledge  that,  whatever  happened, 
no  trouble  could  disturb  his  dwelling.     During  his 
residence  in  Edinburgh,  his  youngest  sister,  Ellen, 
formed  a  member  of  the  family,  and  between  the 
three    there   was    such    a    perfect    sympathy   and 
understanding  that  ofttimes  their  happy  moods  re- 
called to  the  visitor  the  innocent  joys  of  childhood. 
During    his    earlier   years    at    Innellan   his   other 
sister,  Mrs.   Monteath,  then  unmarried,  and  affec- 
tionately known  among  the  villagers,  with  whom 
she     was     very     popular,     as     ''  Miss     Maggie," 
occasionally     relieved     Miss     Matheson     of    the 
management  of  his   house.     The  affection  which 
19 


290        DR.  MATHESON  AT  HOME 

they  had  for  him  in  his  boyhood  deepened  with 
the  growing  years  and  contributed  largely  to  the 
''happy  life"  which,  he  said  to  his  eldest  sister 
shortly  before  his  death,  had  been  his  lot. 

He  was  in  the  habit,  as  has  already  been  pointed 
out,  of  taking  full  advantage  of  every  minute  of 
time ;  and  without  his  careful  arrangement  of  the 
day's  labours,  shielded  though  he  was  from  every 
unnecessary  interruption  and  worry,  he  would  not 
have  been  able  to  get  through  his  day's  work, 
or  to  accomplish  all  that  he  was  able  to  do  in 
the  world.  He  was  greatly  aided  by  the  young 
men  who  from  time  to  time  acted  as  his  private 
secretaries.  They  were  naturally  drawn  to  him, 
and  he  was  able  to  inspire  them  with  his  own 
enthusiasm.  They  looked  up  to  him  with  profound 
respect  and  reverence,  and  no  task  on  his  behalf 
was  to  them  a  labour.  One  of  them,  and  not  the 
least  devoted,  Mr.  William  Smith,  who  served  Dr. 
Matheson  in  this  capacity  during  the  last  ten  years 
of  his  life,  has  furnished  me  with  the  following 
account  of  his  daily  routine.  Mr.  Smith  came  to 
him  shortly  before  he  was  provided  with  a  colleague 
in  St.  Bernard's,  and  the  brief  sketch  which  he 
contributes  of  his  parochial  duties  does  not  give 
the  entire  measure  of  the  work  which  Dr.  Matheson 
performed  when  he  had  sole  charge  ;  but  his  de- 
scription of  his  chiefs  method  of  work  in  the  study 
is  not  only  full  but  most  interesting.  Speaking  of 
his  parochial  labours,  he  says  : 

When  I  took  up  my  duties  I  began  to  put  forth  my 


DR.  MATHESON  AT  HOME        291 

poor  energies  to  assist  him  in  his  literary  labours  and 
the  parochial  round  of  St.  Bernard's  Parish,  Edinburgh. 
Down  in  the  Stockbridge  vale  he  lived,  and  moved,  and 
had  his  being.  Select  company  had  lived  there  before 
him  ;  it  was  a  region  sacred  to  the  memory  of  the  mighty 
dead.  And  was  not  this  a  worthy  follower  in  their  foot- 
steps. Did  he  not  dream  in  Carlylean  philosophy,  did 
he  not  picture  in  his  pages  those  Bible  heroes  whose 
descendants  look  out  upon  us  from  the  canvas  of  Raeburn  ? 
It  would  seem  that  here,  for  him,  those  great  ones  had  left 
an  imperishable  legacy  behind. 

A  parochial  round,  I  say — but  no  common  task.  For 
those  were  busy  days.  The  numerous  parochial  organisa- 
tions made  their  due  demands.  And  then  the  baptisms 
and  the  marriages — usually  performed  at  his  own  house 
at  the  mystic  evening  hour  of  eight !  How  impressed  I 
was — coming  from  the  South — with  the  simplicity  of 
these  marriage  rites,  and  yet  with  their  solemnity,  as, 
with  his  full  resonant  voice,  he  pronounced  the  words, 
"  The  Lord  bless  thee,  and  keep  thee :  the  Lord  make 
His  face  to  shine  upon  thee,  and  give  thee  peace."  It 
was  thought  a  great  thing  to  be  married  by  "the  blind 
minister,"  and  even  to  be  visited  by  him.  But  early  in 
my  day  he  was  beginning  to  curtail  the  parochial  visita- 
tion. Allied  to  the  prolonged  and  constant  strain  of 
mental  work,  it  was  more  than  he  could  bear.  At  the 
expense  of  his  own  pocket,  he  secured  the  services  of 
an  ordained  minister.  And  yet  his  day  was  full.  Session 
meetings  and  other  meetings  remained ;  the  regular  pulpit 
work,  literary  work,  baptisms  and  marriages,  were  with 
him  still.  It  was  surprising  how  he  got  through  so  much 
and  yet  found  time  for  the  social  hour — the  hour  of 
recreation. 

Mr.  Smith  then  takes  us  into  the  study 
and  shoves  us  the  nature  of  the  work  that  was 
done  there,  and  the  way  in  which  Dr.  Matheson 
utilised  the  time  at  his  disposal.  His  method 
was  much  the  same  as  that  which  he  followed  at 


292        DR.  MATHESON  AT  HOME 

Innellan,  but  it  varied  in  some  important  points, 
which  are  worth  recording. 

What  was  his  day's  routine  ?  For  his  life  was  essen- 
tially a  routine — a  clearly  defined  programme  essential 
to  his  happiness.  He  would  descend  about  nine  to  his 
breakfast,  which  he  took  with  his  correspondence  and 
the  papers.  Unless  any  letter's  reply  involved  some 
theological  question,  I  usually  replied  myself,  in  his 
name.  But  he  liked  all  replies  sent  off  practically  by 
return  of  post,  and  he  would  scarcely  rest  till  I  told  him 
they  were  despatched.  When  I  had  read  to  him  his 
letters,  I  took  up  the  morning  papers.  Notices  of  in- 
teresting literature  were,  on  the  whole,  the  most  attractive 
feature ;  but  his  attention  was  by  no  means  restricted  to 
the  book  department.  Politics,  criminal  trials,  wars  and 
rumours  of  wars,  all  held  for  him  a  certain  interest. 
Particularly  had  he  a  penchant  for  the  realm  of  criminal 
law.  He  often  told  me  he  would  in  other  physical 
circumstances  have  studied  for  the  Bar.  Assuredly  he 
had  a  remarkably  logical  mind,  which,  in  this  respect, 
enabled  him  to  decide  the  question  "  Guilty  or  Not 
Guilty  ?  "  with,  I  have  every  reason  to  believe,  absolutely 
unfailing  justness.  He  ever  had  an  interest,  too,  in  prison 
methods  and  criminal  reformation ;  he  might  have  written 
It  is  Never  Too  Late  to  Mend.  In  the  field  of  politics 
he  did  not  evince  very  pronounced  opinions.  Matters  of 
mechanism  had  for  him  a  wonderful  attraction.  When 
I  explained  to  him  the  nature  of  the  turbine  or  the  motor, 
or  read  to  him  of  some  accelerated  service  of  train  or 
steamship,  he  drank  in  the  information  greedily.  He 
would  speculate  on  their  developments  in  the  future, 
and,  in  this  respect,  he  might  have  produced  Mr.  Wells' 
Anticipations. 

From  the  papers  he  would  pass  to  his  studies  in 
French  and  German.  These  were  brief;  but  they  were 
regular  and  remembered.  He  would  often  remark  on 
some  British  slang  as  obviously  derived  from  one  or 
other  of  the  modern  tongues.  And  then  he  would  read. 
Theology,  philosophy,  science,   history,   literature — these 


DR.  MATHESON  AT  HOME        293 

were  his  favourite  lines.  Usually  a  spell  at  some  two 
such  volumes.  And  then  he  proceeded  to  dictate  for 
the  press.  This  completed,  he  left  me  to  attend  to  letters 
or  any  proof-reading  I  might  have  on  hand,  betaking 
himself  to  his  work  of  composition.  Leaving  his  world 
of  books  and  shadows,  he  would  retire  into  the  realms 
of  inspiration  light. 

This  comprehended  his  day's  serious  work.  In  the 
afternoon  I  again  read  to  him  fiction.  And  in  the 
evening  I  sometimes  gave  him  his  third  daily  repast — 
miscellaneous  books  and  fiction.  But  what  was  his  fiction  ? 
All  kinds,  if  good.  He  admired  the  best — George  Meredith. 
But,  candidly,  I  think  he  preferred  the  lighter  vein.  Among 
living  novelists,  there  were  none  he  liked  better  than 
Braddon,  Hall  Caine,  W.  E.  Norris,  and,  although  so 
optimistic  in  himself,  he  thoroughly  appreciated  the 
genius  displayed  in  the  pessimistic  pages  of  Thomas 
Hardy.  He  held  strongly  that  fiction's  province  is  to 
amuse,  and  though  he  perused  the  problems,  thought  they 
were  problems  out  of  place.  Among  other  modern  fiction 
writers  in  this  country  he  favoured  were,  of  course, 
George  Eliot,  Barrie,  Anthony  Hope,  Humphry  Ward, 
Merriman,  and  E.  F.  Benson.  In  America,  he  thoroughly 
enjoyed  Gertrude  Atherton,  Mary  Wilkins,  and  James 
Lane  Allen.  Of  the  school  farther  back,  Thackeray, 
Dickens,  Trollope,  and  Kingsley  had  his  sympathy ;  while 
as  to  Scott  and  Lytton — well,  he  read  them  once,  of  course. 
He  recently  tried  again,  but  could  not  persevere.  The 
elephantine  phraseology,  just  as  is  also  the  case  with 
the  bulk  of  translated  fiction,  was  too  much  for  him. 
But  how  he  would  laugh  when  fiction  afforded  a  "  good 
thing."  I  used  to  think  that,  could  the  writer  have  heard 
that  laugh,  he  would  have  felt  his  labour  had  not  been 
in  vain. 

After  he  had  been  some  four  years  in  St. 
Bernard's,  Dr.  Matheson  acquired  a  knowledge 
of  the  Braille  system  of  writing  for  the  blind. 
Previous  to  that  time  all  his  sermons  and  books 


294        DR.  MATHESON  AT  HOME 

and  articles  were  dictated.  It  Is  hard  to  measure 
the  strain  which  this  put  on  his  mind.  The  last 
work  written  by  him  In  this  manner  probably  was 
The  Spiritual  Development  of  St.  Paul.  Mr. 
Smith  makes  very  interesting  references  to  the  new 
method,  and  also  mentions  Dr.  Matheson's  equal 
mastery  of  the  typewriter. 

Let  me  now  speak  of  his  Braille.  Strictly  speaking, 
genuine  Braille  it  was  not.  It  is  true,  he  began  the 
practice  of  his  peculiar  system  by  learning  the  orthodox 
Braille  alphabet;  but  he  soon  played  havoc  with  that 
alphabet.  A  large  number  of  the  letters  he  "  improved 
upon " ;  and  he  never  even  began  to  learn  the  Braille 
method  of  contractions.  Largely  his  own  letters,  entirely 
his  own  abbreviations — this  system  fulfilled  its  definite 
purpose  and  no  more.  That  purpose  was  to  act  as  a 
private  notebook.  But  when  I  say  "  notebook,"  I  do  not 
mean  that  he  committed  to  his  Braille  characters  the 
mere  outlines  of  his  train  of  thought.  Every  word — every 
article  and  conjunction  —  figured  in  that  "  notebook." 
The  public  is  indebted  to  that  characteristic — a  character- 
istic which  enabled  me  to  supply,  word  for  word,  a  con- 
siderable amount  of  literary  matter  which,  at  his  death, 
existed  only  in  the  form  of  Braille  "  copy " ;  in  other 
circumstances  the  full  beauty  and  rhythmic  flow  of  this 
particular  writing  would  have  been  lost.  When  he  com- 
mitted matter  to  his  Braille,  then,  it  was  quite  ready  for 
dictation  for  the  press.  Ultimately,  when  it  zuas  trans- 
ferred to  black  and  white,  I  do  not  say  that  there  w^as  no 
retouching;  an  occasional  ambiguity  was  removed — a 
too-oft-repeated  word  was  exchanged  ;  but  very  seldom 
was  the  whole  gist  of  any  sentence  altered.  And  here 
I  may  mention  a  point  which  has  always  struck  me 
forcibly — the  remarkable  absence  in  his  writings  of  any 
repetition,  in  the  big  sense.  And  what  a  common  failing 
this  repetition  is !  And  let  me  suggest  how  heavily  in 
this   respect    George    Matheson   was   handicapped.     The 


DR.  MATHESON  AT  HOME        295 

ordinary  writer  has  no  difficulty  in  the  rapid  scanning 
of  his  foregoing  pages ;  but  when  Dr.  Matheson  had 
"  written  up "  a  sheet  of  Braille,  he  rarely  reverted  to  it 
till  time  for  dictating  arrived.  Once  the  sheets  had  been 
added  to  the  pile,  the  difficulty  of  "  skimming  back  "  was 
so  great  that  it  was  rarely,  if  ever,  resorted  to.  And 
ultimately,  even  when  dictating,  the  piecemeal  character 
of  the  process  was  such  as  to  positively  court  the  danger 
of  repetition,  while  by  this  time  his  mind  was  usually  full 
of  other  work — other  schemes.  But  no,  his  train  of 
thought  was  far  too  clear  to  allow  him  to  succumb  to 
this  common  weakness;  his  inspiration  went  steadily 
forward — no  stopping,  no  going  back ;  it  was  like  the 
river,  flowing  gently  onward  to  the  sea. 

He  occasionally  evinced  a  certain  dissatisfaction  with 
his  Braille  concerning  its  shortcomings  in  the  foregoing 
respect ;  but  he  ever  admitted  that  its  advantages  greatly 
outweighed  its  drawbacks.  Latterly,  indeed,  he  regarded 
this  apparatus  as  a  kind  of  talisman  or  spiritualistic  medium. 
I  remember,  once,  he  made  some  kind  remark  about  my 
own  literary  qualifications.  I  scarcely  took  him  seriously, 
though,  for  that  matter,  I  find  that  the  fittest  have  most 
sympathy  for  the  unfit.  At  any  rate,  I  repudiated  his  view 
of  my  "  fitness."  "  Nonsense  !  "  he  replied,  "  get  hold  of 
something  as  I  get  hold  of  my  Braille ;  my  Braille  to  me 
is  a  regular  '  planchette.' "  It  would  almost  seem  that  his 
physical  affliction  had  produced  positive  helps  to  his 
intellect,  that  out  of  his  stony  griefs  Bethel  he  raised. 

His  acquiring  of  this  "  blind  "  method  of  writing,  dates 
only  from  some  sixteen  years  back.  Before  that  time  his 
literary  and  sermon  work  must  have  been  pursued  with 
enormous  difficulty.  He  never  practised  contemporaneous 
study  and  dictation  ;  and  I  have  often  wondered  how  even 
his  great  intellect  contrived  to  store  the  material  till 
committal  to  black  and  white  relieved  the  strain.  I 
believe  some  lady  friend  suggested  the  innovation  to  him ; 
we  are  indebted  to  her,  for  the  old  regime  could  not  have 
lasted  much  longer,  and  we  should  have  been  less  rich 
to-day.  Usually,  when  the  Braille  matter  was  "written 
up "  the  original  was  destroyed  ;  but  he  always  kept  a 


296        DR.  MATHESON  AT  HOME 

certain  stock,  comprising  lectures,  sermons  suitable  for 
special  occasions,  and  the  like.  These  were  kept  in  a 
special  cupboard  in  his  study,  so  that  he  himself  could 
get  access  to  them  at  his  will.  This  cupboard  was  indeed 
a  sacred  spot,  and  the  periodical  cleaning  thereof  was 
only  effected  under  the  strictest  surveillance  of  myself. 
When  travelling,  he  usually  had  occasion  to  carry  a 
certain  quantity  of  Braille  matter,  with  a  view  to  dictation 
at  the  journey's  end.  This  was  ever  a  cause  of  the  keenest 
anxiety  to  him.  "William,"  he  would  say  at  least  six 
times  on  the  road,  "  is  that  MS.  all  right  ?  "  An  unhappy 
experience  preyed  on  his  mind ;  he  had  once  had  most 
of  his  "  raised  dots  "  flattened  down  on  account  of  improper 
packing.  He  feared  this  awful  event  would  recur.  It 
did  not  recur — I  took  good  care  of  that ;  nevertheless,  like 
Rachel,  he  refused  to  be  comforted. 

Occasionally  he  would  receive  a  Braille  letter  from 
some  blind  stranger — usually  in  England — who  had  heard 
of  his  preaching  or  his  books,  or  who  evinced  an  interest 
in  his  successful  career.  With  his  ignorance  of  the  ortho- 
dox system,  he  never  attempted  to  decipher  such  a  letter 
himself  I  used  to  transmit  them  to  the  Blind  School  at 
Craigmillar,  Edinburgh,  where  the  headmaster  soon  kindly 
procured  a  written  interpretation  of  the  same. 

For  some  time  after  Dr.  Matheson  became  permanently 
blind,  he  maintained  ordinary  penmanship.  To  aid  him 
in  this,  he  made  use  of  a  small  frame  crossed  at  intervals 
of  about  an  inch  with  pliable  catgut  strings.  In  this 
frame  the  paper  was  fixed,  the  pliable  strings  enabling 
him  to  keep  a  fair  alignment  without  placing  too  abrupt 
a  check  on  his  straying  from  the  path.  Whether  this 
simple  expedient  was  his  own  invention  or  whether  it, 
too,  was  suggested  to  him,  I  never  ascertained.  Long 
before  my  day  he  had  entirely  discontinued  penmanship — 
though  to  the  end  he  performed  his  signature  in  the  case 
of  legal  documents. 

I  must  here  state,  however,  that  he  acquired  a  know- 
ledge of  the  typewriter.  He  had  himself  no  particular 
wish  to  do  this;  but  a  friend  was  so  convinced  of  its 
usefulness  to  him  that  he  was  persuaded  to  accept  as  a 


DR.  MATHESON  AT  HOME        297 

present  a  fine  Remington.  Mr.  Illingworth — then  head- 
master of  Craigmillar  Blind  School — came  periodically  to 
give  him  lessons ;  and  in  a  very  short  time  he  got  on 
surprisingly  intimate  terms  with  the  keys.  He  never 
practised  regularly  enough  to  acquire  any  considerable 
speed  ;  and  rapid  working  was  also  precluded  by  the 
preciseness  and  correctness  that  pervaded  all  his  work. 
Often  during  my  absence,  he  would  in  this  manner  answer 
his  letters  on  his  own  account ;  and  even  at  other  times, 
when  not  too  pressed  with  work,  he  would  use  his  machine 
"  just  to  keep  his  hand  in."  "  I  think  I  have  forgotten 
that  typewriter,"  he  would  say ;  and  he  would  ultimately 
express  much  satisfaction  when  I  told  him  his  production 
needed  little  or  no  correction.  But  if  on  fairly  intimate, 
he  never  got  on  affectionate,  terms  with  this  innovation. 
It  did  not  really  meet  his  felt  want.  He  could  not  himself 
refer  to  the  typed,  any  more  than  he  could  refer  to  the 
pencilled,  lines ;  and  for  the  practical  purposes  of  his 
serious  work,  it  was  useless.  With  all  its  drawbacks,  his 
boon  and  blessing  was  his  Braille. 

I  have  said  that  in  the  case  of  his  literary  work  every 
word  was  committed  to  the  Braille  characters.  This  was 
not  the  case  with  his  sermons.  In  his  early  preaching 
days  at  Innellan  his  sermons  were  entirely  committed  to 
memory,  and  they  were  preserved  in  their  entirety  in 
sermon  books.  But  he  forsook  this  policy — committing 
only  the  skeleton  and  enlarging  extemporaneously  thereon 
in  the  pulpit.  These  skeleton  sermons  were  preserved  in 
books  just  as  were  the  complete  ones,  and,  after  his 
acquisition  of  the  Braille,  were  committed  to  those  char- 
acters also.  He  retained  in  this  Braille  form  certain 
sermons  suitable  for  special  occasions  such  as  anniversaries, 
so  that,  when  occasion  arose,  he  could  work  them  up 
entirely  on  his  own  account.  He  treated  in  this  way 
lectures,  or,  if  he  had  time  for  such  preparation,  public 
speaking  of  any  kind. 

He  was  very  impatient  of  interruption  v^hen 
his  mind  v^as  in  the  actual  flow  of  composition,  and 
his  anxiety  to  accomplish  v^ithin  the  promised  time 


298        DR.  MATHESON  AT  HOME 

a  task  he  had  undertaken  often  brought  him  down 
to  his  study  in  the  morning  long  before  anyone  in 
the  house  was  astir. 

If  any  event  could  give  his  mind  a  morbid  turn,  it  was 
an  interruption  during  his  working  hours.  Right  into  the 
midst  of  our  morning  studies  would  come  a  servant  with 
a  card.  She  might  have  brought  a  bombshell !  "  The 
Rev.  Melchizedek  Howler,"  I  would  read,  "  Kamschatka ! 
it's  really  too  bad  ! "  he  would  exclaim  as  he  rose  from 
his  chair,  "  I  simply  must  be  left  time  for  my  work." 
Presently,  that  laugh — that  pervaded  the  house — and  the 
house  next  door !  The  cloud  had  passed  !  He  would 
return  to  me :  "  William,  we  must  just  stop  there  this 
morning;  mark  the  place";  and  off  again  to  his  new 
friend — new,  I  say,  for,  assuming  he  had  failed  to  recognise 
the  name,  he  no  more  forgot  names  than  he  forgot  voices. 
It  was  the  same  with  his  tailor  or  his  hairdresser.  Faithful 
to  the  moment  would  they  come.  But  the  great  brain 
had  forestalled  them  and  demanded  their  immediate 
attention.  A  word — a  gesture  of  impatience.  But  soon 
again  the  joke,  the  laugh — diversion  complete.  Verily  his 
moods  were  varied  and  multitudinous ;  but  very  few  were 
sad. 

These  were  the  only  clouds  that  even  temporarily 
darkened  his  life.  Patient  in  his  affliction — but  impatient 
in  the  hampering  of  the  chariot  wheels  of  his  intellect. 
An  extra  pressure  of  correspondence,  an  urgent  request 
for  some  magazine  article  which  he  did  not  like  to  refuse 
— a  spirit  of  intense  impatience  immediately  possessed  his 
soul.  I  might  try  my  best  to  curb  this  spirit;  but  all 
efforts  had  little  effect.  "  That  article  will  do  quite  well 
in  a  week."  That  article  was  usually  done  in  half  the 
time.  Often  have  I  appeared  for  my  duties  in  the  morning 
— to  find  him  first  in  the  field.  He  had  prematurely 
risen,  descended  the  stairs,  and  commenced  to  work  with 
his  beloved  Braille — to  the  servants'  consternation  and 
dismay.  They  might  dust  the  foundations ;  they  might 
dust  the  roof;  but  they  must  leave  him  for  the  nonce  in 
his  study — alone.     "  I  could  not  rest,"  he  would  tell  me ; 


DR.  MATHESON  AT  HOME        299 

"  I  must  get  this  thing  off  my  mind."  But  I  had  to  rest 
— till  the  flash  of  inspiration  had  been  duly  recorded  in 
his  memorandum.  This  was  his  pessimistic  vein — the 
magnifying  of  his  responsibilities.  "  I'm  over  head  and 
ears,"  he  would  say  to  his  sister;  "no  one  must  bother 
me  to-day."  He  evidently  believed  he  had  twelve  hours 
work  before  him.  His  surprise  and  satisfaction  were 
positively  childish  when  he  found  he  had  finished  in  four. 

When  Matheson  was  at  the  height  of  his  fame 
the  demands  made  upon  him  to  preach  in  almost 
every  part  of  the  United  Kingdom  were  very 
numerous  indeed.  He  had  engagements  made, 
nearly  two  years  in  advance.  He  had  to  refuse  the 
vast  majority  of  the  invitations  sent  to  him,  but 
once  a  month  he  was  in  the  habit  of  occupying  the 
pulpit  of  another  church  in  some  part  of  the 
country,  usually  in  the  larger  centres  of  population, 
and  in  no  place  did  he  receive  a  heartier  welcome 
than  in  his  native  city  of  Glasgow.  Mr.  Smith 
makes  amusing  reference  to  the  crowds  that 
besieged  the  vestry  on  such  occasions,  and  to  the 
way  in  which  Matheson  was  able  to  distinguish 
some  old  friend  or  admirer,  whom  he  had  not 
met  perhaps  for  thirty  years,  by  the  tone  of  his 
voice. 

In  my  early  days  with  him  he  made  a  practice  of 
preaching  from  home  about  once  a  month.  I  understand 
that  neither  in  Innellan  nor  in  St.  Bernard's  did  he  ever 
preach  the  same  sermon  twice.  The  preaching  from 
home,  however,  usually  gave  him  the  opportunity  of  using 
an  old  discourse,  especially  as  the  occasion — often  an  in- 
auguration or  an  anniversary — practically  necessitated  this. 
"  Old  sermons,"  I  say ;  they  were  often  presented  with 
such  utterly  fresh  illustration  that  many  might  hear  them 


300        DR.  MATHESON  AT  HOME 

again  and  think  them  new.  And  how  obviously  gratified 
he  was  when,  as  he  and  I  emerged  from  the  vestry- 
corridors,  I  said  to  him,  in  an  undertone,  "  A  very  full 
house."  I  suppose  "  a  full  house "  is  inspiring  to  most 
ministers ;  it  certainly  was  to  him. 

He  always  found  the  actual  travelling  a  great  bore; 
but,  on  the  whole,  he  thoroughly  enjoyed  these  week-ends 
from  home.  He  was  apt  to  be  somewhat  abstracted  till 
his  work  was  done,  but  after  that  he  was  the  very  soul  of 
vivacity  and  merriment.  It  is  highly  amusing  to  recall 
some  of  the  preparations  for  his  week-end,  especially  in 
cases  where  he  was  bound  for  a  house  which  he  had  never 
visited  before.  To  ensure  a  night's  rest  in  his  prospective 
quarters,  he  deemed  it  best  to  make  certain  arrangements 
some  few  days  before  leaving  his  own  house.  Sometimes 
in  the  train,  to  try  and  "  pass  the  time  "  for  him,  I  read 
aloud  a  little,  and  I  used  to  wonder  if  the  operation  were 
more  painful  to  him  or  to  me.  He  seemed  grateful, 
however;  and  really  I  used  sometimes  to  think  that, 
by  some  telepathic  means,  he  "  saw  "  as  much  of  the  type 
as  I  did. 

Arrived  at  a  strange  abode,  he  liked  early  to  secure  the 
general  geographical  idea  of  its  principal  apartments,  and 
in  this  kind  of  thing  he  seemed  fully  as  clever  as  a  good 
many  people  with  sight.  Also,  if  the  church  or  lecture 
hall  were  in  the  vicinity,  he  would  express  a  wish  to  "  take 
his  bearings  "  in  that  respect  before  the  hour  of  service  or 
lecture  arrived.  I  used  to  conduct  him  up  and  down, 
perhaps  twice,  to  and  from  his  prospective  rostrum,  and, 
as  he  was  somewhat  prone  to  gesticulation,  he  was  ever 
anxious  that  no  loose  books,  no  glass  of  water,  no  gas 
chandelier,  should  be  within  reach  of  his  arm.  Whether 
he  always  evinced  such  anxiety  I  do  not  know  ;  but  I 
understand  that  on  one  occasion  a  gas  globe  which  pro- 
jected from  the  side  of  the  pulpit  was  smashed  to  atoms  by  a 
wave  of  his  hand.  He  stopped  and  with  amazing  presence 
of  mind  exclaimed,  "  Gather  up  the  fragments."  But, 
though  he  had  this  preliminary  interview  with  his  immedi- 
ate oratorical  surroundings,  I  made  a  practice  of  carefully 
conducting   him  ultimately  to   his  perch;   and  verily  it 


DR.  MATHESON  AT  HOME        301 

might  oft  have  been  said  that  "they  climbed  the  steep 
ascent  to  heaven."  I  have  known  occasions  when,  after 
the  service,  the  vestry  was  literally  besieged ;  and  particu- 
larly was  this  the  case  when  preaching  in  the  West.  Old 
friends  who  had  not  met  him  for  many  years  would  push 
in  their  forms.  "  You'll  not  remember  me,  doctor  ! "  A 
moment's  hesitation,  then  a  flash  over  the  face,  a  beaming 
smile,  and  "  Mackintosh  ! "  Oh  yes,  it  was  Mackintosh, 
right  enough — no  mistake  about  that  Nothing  wonderful 
perhaps ;  if  men  shut  their  eyes  occasionally,  it  might 
open  their  ears. 

It  is  also  amusing  to  recall  the  intense  interest  he 
evinced  in  the  personal  characteristics  of  the  new  friends 
he  had  been  brought  into  contact  with — personal,  I  mean, 
with  regard  to  physical  appearance.  There  is  no  doubt 
that,  as  a  rule,  he  formed  a  wonderfully  accurate  idea  of 
their  outward  forms  through  the  medium  of  their  voices. 
On  the  road  home,  this  subject  usually  cropped  up ;  and 
the  comparing  of  our  notes  often  occasioned  in  him  the 
most  intense  amusement  and  jocularity.  In  the  mere 
matter  of  stature,  he  could  be  practically  left  to  judge  for 
himself;  given  a  good  light,  he  could  actually  discern 
objects  in  silhouette. 

Mr.  Smith,  after  referring  to  Dr.  Matheson's 
recreations,  speaks  v^ith  tenderness  and  admiration 
of  his  chief's  Christian  heroism  under  his  great 
affliction. 

It  would  not  be  easy  to  say,  however,  what  actually 
constituted  Dr.  Matheson's  recreation,  unless  you  applied 
this  term  to  his  every  conscious  act.  He  so  obviously 
"  revelled  "  in  his  every  experience  that  it  was  impossible 
to  discriminate  between  the  effect  of  the  one  and  the 
effect  of  the  other.  Did  he  laugh  loud  and  long  at  some 
passing  joke  in  fiction  ;  he  would  also  find  "  a  good  thing  " 
in  philosophy's  sober  tome.  Did  his  countenance  evince 
pleasure  as,  seated  on  steamer's  deck,  the  Clyde's  balmy 
breezes  fanned  his  cheek  ;  I  have  seen  equally  pleasur- 
able expressions  when,  seated  in  his  study  chair,  the  flash 


302        DR.  MATHESON  AT  HOME 

of  inspiration  came  like  manna  from  above.  No,  every- 
thing was  recreation  to  Dr.  Matheson ;  though  barred 
from  the  earthly  light,  more  life  and  fuller  was  his  portion. 
I  think  I  never  knew  a  man  who  more  thoroughly 
"  lived."  1  experienced  an  agreeable  surprise  at  our  very 
first  interview.  But  surprises  greater  were  in  store.  I 
naturally  felt  chary  of  making  any  intentional  reference 
to  his  particular  physical  affliction,  even  in  the  general 
sense.  I  went  further ;  I  actually  skipped  over  such 
references  when  they  occurred  in  books  or  papers  I  was 
reading  to  him.  To  the  end  of  my  service  I  retained  this 
very  natural  delicacy;  but  I  really  think  it  was  labour 
lost.  He  was  prone  rather  to  joke  about  "  the  poor  blind 
man "  than  to  treat  such  a  subject  with  sympathetic 
lament.  "  Pure  pretence  !  "  you  will  say.  I  do  not  know. 
Dr.  Matheson  was  not  good  at  pretence.  At  any  rate, 
outwardly  he  bore  his  burden  lightly,  gallantly,  on  to 
the  end. 

And  yet  I  admit,  though  usually  the  most  optimistic 
of  men,  he  impressed  me  at  times  with  strange  incon- 
sistencies. I  remember  more  than  once  that  he  told  me 
he  never  woke  in  the  morning  but  with  a  feeling  of  regret 
— regret  that  he  had  woke,  that  he  had  not  slept  on,  into 
that  sleep  which  knows  no  w^aking.  A  brief  moment,  and 
some  scrap  of  news,  some  chance  remark,  some  unexpected 
visitant,  would  instantaneously  change  the  key.  His  joke, 
his  laugh,  his  beaming  face,  were  a  living  illustration  of 
the  j'oj/  of  living,  of  life  for  life's  sake. 

Ah,  yes !  the  pessimism  was  the  disguise — he  could 
not  have  played  the  opposite  role  so  long — so  long  and 
so  successfully.  You  will  find  no  pessimistic  shadows  in 
his  books ;  those  who  ever  met  him  in  the  flesh  will  frame 
him  in  an  atmosphere  of  wit  and  geniality. 

None  could  more  effectually  enter  the  heart  of  the 
child.  He  had  practically  given  up  the  Sunday  School 
work  before  my  day ;  but  I  understand  his  addresses  to 
the  little  ones  were  masterpieces  of  their  kind.  He  once 
told  me  he  thought  he  would  write  a  book  for  children — 
"  w^ee  things "  he  ever  called  them.  Our  little  ones  are 
poorer  than  they  might  have  been. 


DR.  MATHESON  AT  HOME        303 

And  he  had  another  talismanic  medium — his  calumet 
of  peace.  He  certainly  had  faith  in  its  more  or  less 
imaginary  influence.  He  ever  restricted  this  indulgence 
to  the  evening  hour,  and  he  has  told  me  that  it  was  to 
him  an  hour  of  communion.  Latterly,  however,  he  be- 
came less  meditative  at  this  particular  time  of  day,  owing 
to  the  fact  that  he  took  his  pipe  with  his  evening 
reading.  And  he  had  great  faith  in  the  workings  of  the 
subconscious  mind.  Often  has  he  told  me  he  has  taken 
his  dilemma  to  bed  with  him,  and  has  woke  up — to  find 
the  problem  solved,  the  mists  dispelled. 

Dr.  Matheson  was  in  his  home  quite  as  interest- 
ing and  inspiring  as  in  the  pulpit.  Should  the 
visitor  be  an  expected  or  invited  guest,  or  should 
he  be  an  old  friend  who  called  at  an  opportune 
moment,  he  was  overwhelmed  with  kindness.  The 
hospitality  of  his  house  was  probably  unequalled 
in  the  Church  of  Scotland,  and  the  gracious  welcome 
offered  by  his  sister  received  a  double  assurance 
from  him.  His  table-talk  on  such  occasions  was 
the  brightest,  wittiest,  and  most  humorous  that  can 
be  imagined.  He  kept  everyone  In  the  best  of 
spirits  ;  and  conversation,  light,  gay,  and  laughter- 
provoking,  made  the  visit  memorable.  At  times 
he  might  be  in  a  silent  mood,  but  that  was  the 
exception,  and  the  originality  of  his  remarks,  the 
unexpected  allusions,  the  apt  quotations,  and  the 
startling  suggestions,  acted  like  a  tonic  on  the 
spirits.  Dr.  Matheson's  laughter  was  the  Carlylean 
laughter  of  the  whole  man.  His  nature  for  the 
time  being  was  absolutely  under  the  control  of  the 
humorous  mood  which  possessed  him.  His  animal 
spirits  reached  their  highest  when  he  was  delivered 


304        DR.  MATHESON  AT  HOME 

from  some  great  mental  strain.  If  a  difficult  piece  of 
literary  composition  were  completed,  or  some  great 
effort,  in  the  way  of  oratory,  had  been  successfully 
accomplished,  there  was  a  strong  reaction,  and  he 
gave  himself  up  for  the  moment  to  that  absolute 
abandon  which  possesses  a  boy  when  the  first  hour 
of  his  holidays  has  arrived. 

It  was  in  the  study,  however,  and  under  the 
soothing  influence  of  his  beloved  pipe,  with  the 
day's  work  of  preaching  or  writing  well  over,  that 
one  discovered  the  man  in  all  his  moods.  On  such 
occasions  he  freely  unbent  himself  and  gave  to  his 
visitor  of  his  very  best.  There  were  two  outstand- 
ing facts  which  speedily  impressed  anyone  who  had 
frequent  personal  intercourse  with  him,  and  these 
were  his  remarkable  memory  and  his  acute  sense  of  • 
hearine-  A  friend  who  had  been  on  the  most 
intimate  terms  with  him  for  many  years,  and  who 
by  nature  and  training  is  of  an  observant  nature, 
remarks  reofardinof  the  first  of  these  :  ' 

Dr.  Matheson's  extraordinary  memory  was,  from  the 
first,  most  striking.  He  could  quote  by  the  pageful, 
not  merely  the  Bible — which  he  had  I  think  by  heart 
— but  any  book  which  he  was  interested  in,  however 
solid  or  volatile.  Nor  was  it  merely  the  literature  that 
he  loved  that  he  remembered  with  exact  precision,  such 
as  Wordsworth's,  Shakespeare's,  or  Burns'  poetry,  and 
likewise  the  most  abstract  metaphysical  disquisitions, 
but  also  the  most  ephemeral  writings  of  the  hour.  To 
my  surprise,  years  afterwards,  he  used  to  quote,  ver- 
batim, whole  sentences  and  even  paragraphs  of  a  paper 
of  mine  which,  at  his  pressing  instigation,  I  prepared  and 
read   at  the  village  hall,   with   nervousness — a  paper  on 


DR.  MATHESON  AT  HOME        305 

Burns.     It   was  my  first   lecture  and   public   appearance 
anywhere. 

For  the  mere  sake  of  revealing  the  extent  of  his 
retentive  power,  I  tested  his  memory  one  evening.  I  took 
up  a  copy  of  the  Glasgow  Herald  from  the  table,  and 
twice  over  read  slowly  and  as  solemnly  as  I  could,  an 
entire  line,  column  after  column,  from  left  to  right,  of  an 
advertisement  page,  and  then,  in  the  same  fashion,  the 
second  line.  There  was  no  connection  whatever  between 
the  advertisements,  and  they  ended  abruptly  and  in- 
coherently. Then  we  had  half  an  hour's  talk  over  our 
pipes,  or  "  burnt-offerings,"  as  we  used  to  call  them,  about 
the  Correlation  of  Forces  or  other  subject,  a  whole  universe 
away  from  a  line  or  two  of  broken  advertisements.  Finally, 
again  I  took  up  the  newspaper,  and  to  my  astonishment — 
for  it  looked  like  witchcraft  or  clairvoyance — my  friend, 
laying  down  the  pipe,  deliberately  repeated  verbatim  the 
incoherent  fragments,  just  as  I  had  read  them.  He  had  a 
memory,  I  told  him,  as  sensitive  and  receptive  as  a  photo- 
graphic plate,  and  retained  for  a  time  good  and  bad 
alike,  rubbish  as  well  as  diamonds,  but  ultimately  only  the 
diamonds  and  flowers,  in  the  deepest  valley  of  his  memory. 
But  he  did  not  much  prize  mere  memory,  however 
necessary  and  valuable.  He  valued  more  highly  obser- 
vation, reflection,  reasoning,  insight,  foresight,  imagination. 
Imagination  he  prized  as  the  highest  power  of  man  ;  he 
considered  that  its  cultivation  was  too  much  ignored  or 
neglected,  and,  very  much  too  frequently,  positively 
discouraged,  in  even  the  youngest  children,  much  more  so 
in  boys  at  school  and  young  men  beginning  life's  work 
and  responsibility ;  for  not  only  was  imagination  one  of 
the  earliest  of  the  great  powers,  but  imaginative  fore- 
thought through  life  was  a  gift  of  the  gods,  and  covered 
far  more  than  mere  fairy  tale  or  fiction  or  make-belief;  it 
ranged  still  more  effectively  and  richly  over  the  hardest 
and  sternest  facts  of  life. 

The  other  fact  v^hich,  I  have  observed,  speedily 
impressed  anyone,  v^ho  was  on  friendly  terms  with 
20 


306        DR.  MATHESON  AT  HOME 

Dr.  Matheson,  was  his  acute  sense  of  hearing, 
regarding  which  the  same  sympathetic  observer 
speaks  as  follows  : 

His  sense  of  hearing  was  not  merely  most  acute,  it 
was  observing,  discerning,  and  thinking.  I  have  never 
come  across,  even  in  the  blind,  a  more  delicately  acute 
hearing.  It  was  the  one  perfect  avenue  in  which  things 
external  poured  into  his  thoughtful  mind.  In  conversation 
the  minutest  difference  of  tone,  he  at  once  detected.  My 
footsteps  on  the  gravel  path  of  the  garden  he  used  to 
recognise  long  before  I  got  into  the  Manse,  or  he  was 
within  earshot  of  my  talk  or  laugh ;  and  his  friend's 
idiosyncrasies  and  many  unknown  people's  peculiarities 
he  diagnosed  from  their  cough,  their  walk,  their  mode  of 
blowing  their  noses. 

Upon  his  sense  of  hearing  he  largely  relied  for  his 
picture  of  character  and  mind.  It  was  for  him  direct, 
first-hand  knowledge.  His  knowledge  of  things  visible — 
forms,  colours,  distance — was  from  memory  or  inferred 
and  second-hand.  Nevertheless,  excluded  as  he  was  from 
all  the  visible  beauty  and  harmony  of  life,  he  frequently 
said  to  me  that  he  would  rather  be  deprived  wholly  of 
sight  than  hearing.  And  perhaps  it  was  not  an  unreason- 
able inference.  The  avenue  of  hearing  is  nearer  than  that 
of  vision  to  the  sensorium,  or  the  central  nidus  of  the 
soul,  and  disease  in  this  direction  or  from  the  seat  of 
hearing  ends  much  more  frequently  in  insanity  itself,  as 
in  the  great  Dean  Swift's  case.  To  also  lose  hearing 
would  have  been  for  my  friend,  who  relied  on  it  so  wholly 
for  communication  with  the  best  around  him,  a  complete 
eclipse.  Not  to  hear  the  voice  of  his  sister,  who  through 
life  remained  to  him  as  his  guardian  angel,  he  told  me ; 
not  to  hear  the  thrilling  tones  of  loved  friends,  or  the 
silvery  laughter  of  children  at  play,  would  have  been  to 
him  in  his  blindness  a  blanker  groping,  than  it  was,  for  the 
Infinite.  Well  might  he  value  hearing,  for  it  was  the  one 
divine  avenue  for  him  from  earth  to  heaven.  His  hearing 
was  perfect,  and  he  judged  quickly  and  much  from  mere 


DR.  MATHESON  AT  HOME        307 

tone  of  voice.  The  mere  tone  and  its  quality  and  intensity- 
had  for  him  colour,  form,  expression,  character,  and  infinite 
variety.  It  was  for  him  as  subtle  a  quality  as  the  mind 
itself,  and  as  characteristic  as  its  colour  to  a  ruby  or 
emerald,  or  its  brawling  music  to  a  Highland  burn. 

All  subjects  came  to  him  with  equal  readiness, 
the  latest  fiction  or  the  newest  theology  were  alike 
known  to  him.  His  memory  was  unerring.  The 
tendencies  of  thought  in  any  theological  volume  or 
the  characters  in  any  novel,  however  far  back  they 
had  been  read,  were  never  forgotten.  His  memory 
gave  him  a  large  store  of  subjects  to  draw  upon, 
and  his  active,  restless  mind  continually  passed 
from  one  to  another.  He  had  endless  enjoyment 
in  humorous  sallies,  whether  from  himself  or  others, 
and  he  had  an  ecstatic  way  of  expressing  fun,  or 
his  appreciation  of  fun,  in  bursts  of  laughter.  In 
conversation  he  seldom  monopolised  the  first  or 
only  place.  ''  Many  times  I  should  have  pre- 
ferred," says  Dr.  Hately  Waddell,  who  saw  much 
of  him  at  North  Berwick,  during  the  last  few 
summers  of  his  life,  when  he  was  on  holiday  there, 
"that  he  did,  but  he  had  no  desire  to  hold  forth 
and  to  lecture,  and  never  asked  anyone  to  sit  at 
his  feet.  All  the  same,  his  presence  usually  domin- 
ated the  conversation  by  reason  of  some  vigorous 
statement  of  a  view,  remarkable,  unusual,  or  con- 
troversial. He  conversed  usually  in  a  graphic  and 
fragmentary  way.  He  did  not  mind  that  conversa- 
tion should  now  and  then  flag,  or  that  it  started 
too  soon  on  some  new  theme.  Only  once  do  I 
remember  a  subject  consistently  discussed  for  any 


308        DR.  MATHESON  AT  HOME 

length  of  time,  and  that  was  the  subject  of  *  Eternal 

Life.'" 

Dr.  Matheson  naturally  took  the  view  that  Eternal 
Life  was  not  any  divided  portion  of  existence,  separated 
from  that  which  now  is,  but  that  it  was  already  here  in  its 
true  conditions,  was  continually  expanding  in  new  experi- 
ences, and  would  find  death  merely  an  incident  in  its 
course.  Judgment,  he  said,  was  certain,  but  was  not  only 
retribution  ;  it  was  simply  a  new  phase  of  life  in  which  we 
should  be  compelled  to  take  a  proper  relation  to  our  true 
self,  and  to  God.  All  men  who  having  misspent  their 
lives  here  should  find  themselves  compelled  to  live  the 
opposite  kind  of  life  there.  As  to  Christ's  second  coming, 
that  also  he  said  was  continually  on  the  way ;  it  began  at 
the  resurrection. 

When  at  Innellan  I  was  in  the  habit  of  visiting 
him  of  an  evening  at  his  manse.  I  was  at  the 
time  a  student  of  philosophy,  and  he  manifested 
ofreat  interest  in  the  lectures  of  Professor  Edward 
Caird,  under  whom  I  was  studying.  Caird  was 
the  greatest  living  exponent  of  Hegelianism,  and  I 
was  struck  by  Matheson's  intimate  knowledge  of 
the  system.  He  was  in  those  days  a  strong 
believer  in  Hegelianism,  and  discussed  its  merits 
with  much  enthusiasm.  Years  afterwards  he 
declared  that  he  had  modified  his  views  somewhat, 
but  he  never  liberated  himself  wholly  from  the 
grasp  of  the  master.  He  discussed  on  such 
occasions  subjects  like  the  "  Higher  Criticism," 
and  he  made  no  secret  of  his  opinions  regarding 
it.     He  would  say  : 

I    don't  believe  in  it  very  much,  from  no   mawkish 
feeling,  for  to  tell  the  truth  I  am  rather  broad,  but  as 


DR.  MATHESON  AT  HOME        309 

a  mere  matter  of  historical  fact  I  don't  believe  in  it.  My 
reason  is  that,  from  a  minute  study  of  the  earliest  prophets, 
Amos  and  Hosea,  I  am  convinced  beyond  all  question 
that  there  was  a  previous  national  religious  law  existing 
among  the  people.  The  very  manner  in  which  the 
prophets  rebuked  the  people  proves  they  were  familiar 
with  an  existing  code.  Now,  if  the  prophets  had  existed 
before  that  law  their  rebukes  would  have  had  no  mean- 
ing. Then  the  whole  question  is,  What  are  the  factors 
or  agents  of  evolution  ?  Well,  the  answer  of  science  is 
that  there  are  really  two  factors  in  all  revolutions,  force 
and  environment.  I  am  willing  to  admit  this,  provided 
they  will  allow  environment  to  include  God  Almighty. 
That  makes  all  the  difference  in  the  world.  Is  God  to 
be  one  of  the  agents  in  the  process  of  evolution?  My 
own  opinion  is  that  everything  is  produced  by  the  com- 
bined action  of  force  and  environment,  but  in  that 
environment  I  include  not  only  earth  and  sea  and  sky, 
but  also  that  great  force  which  Spencer  called  the 
Unknowable,  but  which  I  call  God.  I  quite  believe  that 
the  revelation  of  Scripture  is  a  progressive  development, 
and  that  it  grew  out  of  historical  surroundings  of 
different  ages.  If  the  theory  of  the  Higher  Criticism 
was  proved  it  would  not  in  the  least  weaken  my  sense 
of  the  Bible's  value.  The  real  miracle  of  the  Bible  is,  to 
my  mind,  the  fact  that  out  of  a  multitude  of  disconnected 
writings,  originating  from  various  sources  and  often 
proceeding  from  opposite  tendencies,  there  has  emerged 
as  a  result  the  picture  of  the  Messianic  life. 

Another  subject  v^hich  cropped  up  in  such  con- 
versations was  "  Evolution."  "  I  wrote  a  book,"  he 
once  said,  "to  show  that  evolution,  if  true,  is  quite 
compatible  with  orthodoxy,  but  I  have  since  come 
to  the  conclusion  that  evolution  is  not  true. 

I  have  no  more  fear  of  it  than  I  ever  had,  but  I  am 
quite  convinced  that  in,  say,  twenty  years  it  will  be 
regarded  as  an  exploded  heresy.  I  am  an  unbeliever  in 
Drummondism.     Henry  Drummond  triumphantly  waves 


310        DR.  MATHESON  AT  HOME 

his  hand — you  can  almost  see  him  do  it — over  what  he 
thinks  is  the  strongest  point  in  evolution,  namely, 
similar  things  that  in  you  and  me  are  not  of  the  slightest 
use,  but  in  animals  are  of  great  utility ;  his  conclusion 
being,  that  we  were  animals  first  and  that  these  things 
are  survivals.  My  conclusion  is  not  that  at  all ;  I  would 
be  driven  to  it  if  no  other  explanation  were  reasonable. 
But  if  I  want  to  make  another  staircase  in  this  house 
there  are  two  ways  in  which  I  can  do  it.  I  can  begin 
afresh  from  the  ground  floor  or  I  can  start  at  the  first 
landing.  I  say  that  God  Almighty  always  adopts  the 
latter  method,  to  economise  space  and  time ;  He  makes 
the  new  life  start  on  the  top  of  the  old — not  grow  out  of 
it ;  and  that  accords  with  the  whole  analogy  of  nature. 
The  first  stair  cannot  itself  get  beyond  the  first  landing, 
but  another  stair  may  be  built  upon  it.  I  believe  in  the 
eternity  of  species ;  that  all  differences  existed  from  the 
beginning.  1  don't  believe  that  first  there  was  a  trunk, 
and  that  this  trunk  broke  up  into  branches.  I  believe 
the  branches  were  first,  and  that  they  are  gradually 
being  welded  into  a  trunk.  I  believe  in  individualism — 
individualism  bound  up  into  the  life  of  God.  I  am  con- 
vinced that  in  modern  speculation  the  individual  has  not 
had  justice  done  to  him,  and  that  the  movement  of  the 
future  will  be  towards  individualism. 

As  might  be  expected,  he  frequently  discussed 
*'  Novels  and  Novelists."  Present-day  romance 
had  a  wonderful  fascination  for  him.  He  once 
remarked  to  his  friend,   Mr.   M'Kenzie  Bell : 

"  I  like  Sir  Richard  Calmady.  It  reveals  a  victory  of 
mind  over  matter,  even  while  at  every  moment  the  author 
is  showing  what  a  poor  cripple  Sir  Richard  is.  Even  that 
bad  girl  realises  the  influence  of  Sir  Richard  Calmady's 
force  of  character  over  his  environment.  One  of  my 
greatest  dreads,  when  I  was  growing  blind,  was  that  thus 
I  should  lose  affection — especially  the  affection  of  women 
— but  I  was  wrong.  In  that  way  my  blindness  was  a 
positive  advantage,  for  it  drew  out  their  affection,  though 


DR.  MATHESON  AT  HOME        311 

I  have  never  been  in  love.  Dr.  Robertson  NIcoll  is  most 
persistent  in  trying  to  persuade  me  to  write  a  novel.  I 
could  do  the  plot,  the  characterisation,  and  the  pathos. 
But  I  think  I  should  fail  where  every  tyro  would  succeed. 
I  should  fail  in  giving  vitality  to  the  scenes  in  which  a 
knowledge  of  the  verities  of  sight  became  necessary."  I 
did  my  very  utmost  to  disabuse  his  mind  of  this  fixed 
idea,  urging  in  the  strongest  way  in  my  power  that 
photographic  realism  was  not  at  all  a  necessary  adjunct 
to  fiction.  But  from  his  manner  I  saw  clearly  that  my 
arguments  had  produced  no  impression. 

I  expressed  my  surprise  that  he,  so  great  a  prose  poet, 
did  not  write  more  metrical  poetry.  Further,  I  pointed 
out  that  he,  unlike  a  great  prose  poet,  my  friend  Blackmore, 
had  achieved  in  "  O  Love  that  wilt  not  let  me  go  "  and  in 
a  lesser  degree  in  "  God's  Captive "  the  writing  of  noble 
verse-lyrics.  He  admitted  to  the  full  my  contention  that 
eminent  poets  of  prose  generally  fail  to  become  eminent 
poets  of  poetry.  "  My  lyric  '  O  Love  that  wilt  not  let  me 
go,' "  he  exclaimed,  "  is  merely  the  exception  that  proves 
the  rule.  It  came  to  me  spontaneously,  without  conscious 
effort,  and  I  have  never  been  able  to  gain  once  more  the 
same  fervour  in  verse." 

From  novels  in  general  it  v^as  an  easy  passage 
to  the  ''Religious  Novel"  in  particular.  He  had 
no  hesitation  in  expressing  his  disapproval  of  this 
form  of  literature. 

I  am  not  in  favour  of  it  at  all,  for  the  simple  reason 
that  the  novel  with  a  purpose  always  conveys  to  my  mind 
the  impression  that  it  is  a  sermon  from  the  very  outset, 
and  the  whole  novel  becomes  a  foregone  conclusion. 
Now,  I  hold  that  the  sole  aim  of  a  novel  should  be  to 
amuse,  as  it  should  be  the  sole  aim  of  the  drama. 

I  fully  admit  the  transcendent  genius  of  George 
Meredith,  but  I  do  not  consider  that  his  works  come 
up  to  my  ideal  of  what  a  novel  should  be.  I  should  be 
disposed  to  say  that  the  test  of  the  true  novel  should  be : 
what  do  the  public  like,  for  it  is  for  them  alone  that  the 


312       DR.  MATHESON  AT  HOME 

novel  is  intended.  And  judging  from  their  verdict 
generally,  and  from  that  point  of  view,  I  would  place 
Miss  Braddon  at  the  head  of  the  list.  She  is  a  great 
favourite  of  mine,  and  I  think  I  have  read  every  book 
she  ever  wrote. 

Another  subject  on  which  he  would  converse 
was  '' Creeds  and  Confessions."  He  often  said  that 
he  would  never  dream  of  altering  these,  but  he 
would  continue  to  fill  them  with  new  meaning. 
He  frequently,  says  Dr.  Waddell,  discussed  the 
subject  with  me  at  North  Berwick.      He  held  that 

the  best  way  of  broadening  the  religious  thought  of  the 
time  was  by  working  from  within  the  Church,  by  leavening 
the  lump.  There  was  nothing  at  all  timid  in  this  ;  it  was 
just  his  chosen  method  of  bringing  the  Church  into 
accord  with  the  modern  spirit.  He  knew  that  the  people 
did  not  any  longer  completely  believe  in  the  old  formulas, 
but  he  also  knew  that  they  clung  to  the  old  expressions, 
and  he  wisely  resolved  to  disturb  these  expressions  as 
little  as  possible,  while  his  readers  and  hearers  felt  the 
breath  of  the  new  and  wider  meaning  moving  through 
them.  He  was,  of  course,  essentially  broad  in  his  views, 
but  he  preferred  that  any  broad  interpretation  of  religious 
thought  should  filter  gradually  through  old  channels  rather 
than  it  should  burst  the  banks  of  traditional  faith  and 
bring  commotion  and  destruction  in  its  course.  He 
believed  the  Church  was  saved  in  the  present  generation, 
not  by  the  narrow-minded  who  forced  others  out  of  it  for 
conscience'  sake,  but  by  the  broad-minded  who  determined 
to  stay  within  it  for  the  same  reason.  Naturally,  he  also 
saw  that  once  a  hand  is  laid  upon  an  historic  creed  no 
limit  can  ever  be  set  to  alterations.  Within  the  historic 
creed  you  may  permit  a  wise  freedom  of  interpretation ; 
without  the  historic  creed  you  lose  all  common  standard. 
What  one  Assembly  alters  another  Assembly  may  continue 
to  alter,  and  within  a  few  years  or  generations  all  standards 
become    movable.     This    he    could   not    abide,   and    he 


DR.  MATHESON  AT  HOME        313 

maintained  that  the  need  of  an  historical  document  had 
not  only  been  historically  proved,  but  that  the  wise  and 
prudent  preachers  would  continue  to  uphold  it.  A 
widening  of  the  "subscription-formula"  was  his  method 
of  freedom,  rather  than  that  of  "  creed-alteration." 

It  was  not  often  that  he  referred  directly  in  the 
conversation  to  the  person  of  Christ.  Like  all 
great  natures  he  was  diffident  of  speaking  about 
what  he  loved  most,  but  talking  on  one  occasion 
on  Spinoza's  conception  of  God  he  was  led  on 
to  express  his  views  on  this  supreme  subject. 
Spinoza's  conception  of  God  as  the  underlying 
Substance  of  the  universe  was  too  remote  for  him 
and  too  shadowy.  He  hardly  admitted  that  the 
unknown,  the  unknowable,  underlying  Substance 
might  be  a  perfected  harmony  in  the  heaven  of 
heavens,  making  for  perfection  through  an  infinite 
process  of  specialisation.     No,  he  would  say  : 

Not  so  much  through  a  process  of  specialisation  as 
through  the  Christ,  the  perfected  Christ  of  Galilee.  He 
and  He  alone  is  God  made  manifest  to  men,  God's  life, 
light,  character,  purpose  brought  very  near  to  the  heart  of 
humanity,  and  through  the  utmost  limits  of  thought  itself. 

Without  the  Christ  in  humanity,  not  as  a  mere  ideal 
but  as  the  spiritual  quickening  essence  of  God  performing 
a  miracle  of  transformation  in  man.  Nature  for  him  was 
dark  indeed.     He  would  sometimes  say  : 

As  a  pure  revelation  of  God  Himself,  the  grandest 
the  world  has  ever  seen  or  ever  will  see,  I  bow  down 
prostrate  to  the  Christ  of  NazaretJi.  But  for  that 
revelation  in  Christ  every  thinking  man  or  woman  would 
be,  I  feel,  a  sad  enough  agnostic,  and  even  without  the 
reverence  of  Hume,  the  calm  serene-minded  thinker,  so 
different  a  being  from  the  witty  Voltaire. 


CHAPTER   XII 

LAST   YEARS 

When  Dr.  Matheson  had  been  eleven  years 
minister  of  St.  Bernard's  he  felt  that  the  burden 
of  his  office  was  more  than  he  could  bear.  He 
had  at  that  time  been  thirty  years  a  minister  of 
the  Church,  and  during  the  whole  of  that  period 
he  had  laboured  with  a  constancy  and  a  zeal  which 
it  would  be  difficult  to  parallel.  There  was  no 
failing  in  his  powers,  no  falling  off  in  popularity, 
no  abatement  in  love  for  his  work ;  but  the  con- 
stant wear  and  tear  of  congregational  and  parochial 
duties  began  to  tell.  Besides,  his  increasing  reputa- 
tion as  a  preacher,  and  the  requests  of  editors  for 
articles  and  publishers  for  books,  drew  him  in 
another  direction  ;  and  the  question  came  to  be. 
Which  call  was  to  be  obeyed  ?  Up  till  this  time 
he  had  met  every  demand.  He  was  convinced 
that  he  could  do  so  no  longer.  He  was  not  the 
man  to  attempt  what  he  could  not  accomplish,  or 
to  neglect  his  immediate  duty.  He  carefully  con- 
sidered which  road  he  should  now  travel,  what 
work  he  could  accomplish  with  satisfaction  to  him- 

314 


LAST   YEARS  315 

self  and  benefit  to  the  public,  and  he  decided  that 
the  course  which  would  be  truest  to  himself  and 
in  the  best  interests  of  all  concerned  was  to  resign 
St.  Bernard's  and  to  devote  himself  to  special 
preaching  and  to  literary  effort. 

It  may  be  worth  while  to  reflect  for  a  moment 
on  the  career  in  this  relation  of  some  of  the  most 
popular  preachers  of  recent  times.     Take  his  im- 
mediate predecessor  as  the  first  preacher  in  Scot- 
land, Dr.  John  Caird.     The  distinguished  Principal 
of  Glasgow  University,  when  at  the  height  of  his 
fame,  deliberately  and  wisely  chose  those  charges 
in  which  he  would  have  a  minimum  of  congrega- 
tional   and   parochial    work.       It    is    true    that    he 
was  once  minister  of  a  city  charge,  Lady  Yester's, 
Edinburgh,  but  he  only  remained  in  it  for  a  very 
short  time.     The  constant  demands  that  were  made 
upon  him  hastened   his    flight,   and  he  chose  the 
quiet  country  parish  of  Errol  where  he  could  develop 
his  thoughts  and  mature  his  style  in  peace.     When, 
again,    he    determined    on    a   more   public    sphere 
of  duty,  he  accepted  a  call  to   the   Park   Church, 
Glasgow,  at  that   time  without  a  parish  and  amid 
a  population  that  made  little  call  on  his  ministerial 
activity.     Caird,  it  should  also  be  remembered,  had 
not  up  till  this  time  published  anything,  with  the 
exception  of  a  volume  of  sermons.     The  five  years 
during  which  he  was  minister  of  the  Park  Church, 
he  confessed  to  a  friend,  were  more  than  sufficient, 
and  he  was  convinced  that  if  he  had  continued  much 
longer  under  the  strain  he  would  have  broken  down. 


316  LAST   YEARS 

Or  take  the  great  Chalmers.  The  world  has 
never  ceased  to  hear  of  his  parochial  activity  when 
he  was  minister  of  the  Tron  and  St.  John's, 
Glasgow.  It  may  be  true  that  he  accomplished 
more  in  this  relation  than  any  minister  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland  before  or  since.  He  organised 
his  Session ;  he  manned  his  Parish ;  he  founded 
schools ;  he  relieved  the  poor :  but  with  the  ex- 
ception of  his  Session  and  the  agencies  necessary 
for  carrying  on  his  educational  work  he  had  no 
other  organisations.  Chalmers,  so  far  as  I  can 
gather,  confined  his  visitation  to  his  parish.  When 
the  spirit  moved  him  he  would  call  upon  the 
inmates  of  a  tenement,  and  now  and  again  he 
would  gather  them  together  to  be  addressed.  No 
one  can  deny  his  enormous  labours,  but  they  were 
on  the  whole  more  congenial  and  less  exacting  than 
Matheson's.  Nor  was  he  hampered  in  his  work  by 
the  multiplicity  of  agencies,  which,  however  artificial 
they  might  be,  were  a  tradition  in  St.  Bernard's  ; 
and  upon  their  success  more  than  upon  the  dynamic 
power  of  the  pulpit  some  good  people  thought 
the  salvation  of  the  church  and  parish  depended. 
Chalmers  found  eight  years  of  Glasgow  to  be 
quite  enough,  and  he  was  glad  to  accept,  at  the 
end  of  that  period,  an  invitation  to  the  Chair 
of  Moral  Philosophy  in  the  University  of  St. 
Andrews. 

It  may  not  be  without  interest  to  cross  the 
Border  and  to  allow  our  eyes  to  rest  for  a  moment 
upon  one  of  the  greatest  preachers  of  a  past  genera- 


LAST  YEARS  317 

tion,  I  mean  Dr.  Joseph  Parker.  Matheson  had 
a  sincere  admiration  for  Parker.  He  told  me  on 
one  occasion  that  Parker  was  the  greatest  preacher 
he  had  ever  heard,  and  the  tribute  which,  at  his 
death,  he  paid  to  his  memory  in  the  columns  of 
The  British  Weekly  was  one  of  the  finest  things 
he  ever  wrote.  Nor  was  Parker  without  his  in- 
fluence on  Matheson.  It  has  always  seemed  to 
me  that  the  minister  of  the  City  Temple  was  to 
a  certain  extent  responsible  for  a  change  in  Mathe- 
son's  preaching  which  characterised  his  Edinburgh 
days.  It  was  during  his  incumbency  of  St.  Ber- 
nard's that  Matheson  delio^hted  his  hearers  with 
graphic  pictures,  startled  them  with  semi-humorous 
asides,  and  set  their  souls  on  fire  with  sudden  and 
unexpected  flashes  of  original  thought.  A  certain 
spontaneity  and  freedom,  which  made  the  preacher's 
personality  all  the  more  attractive,  marked  Mathe- 
son's  later  preaching.  It  may  have  been  Parker's 
style  that  gave  him  confidence.  It  was  all  there  long 
before,  but  the  fact  of  having  found  it  in  another  may 
not  have  been  without  its  effect  in  causing  him  to 
have  respect  for  his  own  true  self,  and  to  allow 
the  spirit  that  was  in  him  to  have  free  play.  Well, 
what  demands  were  made  upon  Parker  as  minister 
of  the  City  Temple }  They  v/ere  purely  of  a 
preaching  nature.  He  lived  at  Hampstead,  miles 
away  from  what  may  euphemistically  be  called 
the  scenes  of  his  labours.  He  only  appeared  upon 
them  about  twice  a  week,  on  the  Thursday  and  on 
the  Sunday,  when  he  delivered  his  sermons.     He 


318  LAST   YEARS 

had  no  parish  to  attend  to,  no  calls  upon  him  for 
daily  visitation  and  nightly  services.  He  was 
master  of  his  fate.  He  was  a  great  preacher,  and 
the  conditions  under  which  he  worked  were  of  such 
a  nature  as  to  allow  his  special  gift  to  be  cultivated 
without  hindrance,  and  his  message  to  be  delivered 
with  a  fervour  unimpaired  by  harassing  and  dis- 
tracting toil. 

It  will  be  one  of  the  chief  glories  of  George 
Matheson  that,  while  as  a  preacher  and  as  a  writer 
he  may  claim  equal  rank  with  those  great  names 
just  mentioned,  he  at  the  same  time,  and  for  a 
longer  period  than  any  of  them,  discharged  faith- 
fully and  successfully  the  duties  of  a  parish  minister 
in  a  congregation  which  at  one  time  under  him 
numbered  nearly  two  thousand  members,  and  in  a 
parish  composed  for  the  most  part  of  poor  people 
whose  needs  had  to  be  ministered  to.  And  he  was 
blind !  They  had  every  faculty  unimpaired,  but  he 
was  denied  the  power  of  vision  ;  yet  in  spite  of  it 
he  toiled  on,  attending  to  every  duty,  discharging 
every  task  which  his  office  demanded,  preaching 
sermons  Sunday  after  Sunday  which  drew  admiring 
crowds  from  far  and  near,  and  publishing  books 
which  circulated  over  the  world  and  were  read  by 
thousands.  It  is  no  exaggeration  to  claim  this 
as  one  of  the  most  unique  ministries,  not  only  in 
the  Church  of  Scotland  but  in  the  Church  of  Christ, 
not  only  in  our  generation  but  during  the  Christian 
era. 

Having  thus  determined  on  the  resignation  of 


LAST   YEARS  319 

his  charge,  he  addressed  the  following  letter  to  the 
Session  Clerk  of  St.  Bernard's  : — 

December  2%^  1896. 

I  have  long  felt  that  I  could  do  more  good  to  the 
Church  if  freed  from  special  parochial  work.  I  have 
given  'the  matter  a  very  lengthened,  a  very  earnest,  and 
a  very  careful  consideration,  and  I  have  come  at  last, 
with  absolute  conviction,  to  the  definite  and  final  resolu- 
tion to  resign  the  charge  as  at  Whitsunday.  I  intend 
that  my  ministry  shall  close  on  the  second  Sunday  of 
May — the  eleventh  anniversary  of  my  incumbency  of  this 
church — after  which  the  supply  of  the  pulpit  will  devolve 
on  the  Session. 

It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  news  of 
Dr.  Matheson's  Intention  fell  upon  the  congregation 
with  a  shock  of  surprise.  Immediate  efforts  were 
at  once  made  to  induce  him  to  reconsider  his 
decision.  Pressure  was  brought  to  bear  upon  him 
from  office-bearers  and  congregation  alike.  It  is 
well  known  that  the  matter  weighed  heavily  upon 
him  and  caused  him  great  anxiety.  His  own  desire 
was  to  resign  ;  the  earnest  wish  of  his  people  was 
that  he  should  remain.  They  did  not  wish  to  lose 
him  as  their  minister,  and  they  feared  that  if  the 
ties  which  bound  him  to  St.  Bernard's  were  severed 
there  would  be  a  marked  decline  in  membership. 
After  much  hesitation,  and  somewhat  unwillingly, 
he  at  last  yielded  to  the  overtures  made  to  him, 
and  at  a  meeting  of  Kirk  Session,  held  on  the 
twelfth  of  January,  he  intimated  that  he  withdrew  his 
resignation,  and  intended  to  apply  to  the  Presbytery 
for  a  colleague  and  successor. 


320  LAST   YEARS 

The  arrangement  come  to  was,  that  he  should 
be  freed  from  all  parochial  duty,  and  set  at  liberty 
to  devote  himself  to  preaching  and  to  literary  work. 
This  indeed  was  an  arrangement  that  ought  to  have 
been  arrived  at  long  before.  He  had  on  his  own 
account,  a  year  or  two  previously,  engaged  as  his 
personal  assistant  an  ordained  Minister  of  the 
Church  who  relieved  him  of  certain  duties.  Had 
this  taken  place  earlier,  indeed  from  the  very  first, 
and  with  the  full  concurrence  of  his  Kirk  Session 
and  the  Congregation,  his  services  would  have  been 
at  their  disposal  for  a  longer  period,  and  his  life 
might  have  been  spared.  The  compromise  came 
too  late  in  the  day.  The  Church  of  Scotland  had 
no  place  for  a  man  like  him.  He  was  compelled 
to  conform  to  the  use  and  wont  of  the  parochial 
system,  excellent  in  itself;  but  its  very  excellence 
when  universalised  is  apt  to  destroy  its  efficiency. 
A  good  system  is  all  the  better  when  it  is  elastic, 
and  leaves  room  for  development  on  other  lines 
than  its  own. 

Dr.  Matheson,  in  approaching  the  Presbytery, 
wrote  as  follows : 

January  13,  1897. 

After  eleven  years  of  laborious  work  as  minister  of  the 
Church  and  Parish  of  St.  Bernard's,  and  having  regard  to 
the  physical  disability  under  which  I  labour,  I  desire  now 
to  be  relieved  from  all  parochial  duties  and  work,  except 
preaching.  I  am  prepared  to  give  up  the  whole  stipend, 
retaining  merely  the  endowment  of  ;^I20.  Should  the 
Presbytery  not  see  their  way  to  appoint  a  colleague  and 
successor,  I  tender  the  resignation  of  my  office  of  Minister 
of  St.  Bernard's. 


LAST   YEARS  321 

The  Presbytery  appointed  a  committee  to  confer 
with  Dr.  Matheson  and  the  Kirk  Session,  with  the 
result  that  the  committee  reported  that  it  would  be 
for  the  advantage  of  the  congregation  that  Dr. 
Matheson  should  continue  their  minister,  and  that 
an  assistant  and  successor  should  be  appointed. 
After  sundry  procedure  the  Rev.  J.  J.  Drummond, 
B.D.,  now  minister  of  Jedburgh,  was  elected,  and 
appointed  as  his  colleague  and  successor.  The  last 
meeting  of  St.  Bernard's  Kirk  Session,  presided 
over  by  Dr.  Matheson,  was  held  on  the  3rd  October 
1897,  Mr.  Drummond's  induction  taking  place  on 
the  23rd  of  the  same  month.  Dr.  Matheson  was 
fortunate  in  his  new  colleague,  who  had  been  brought 
up  under  his  own  eye  in  St.  Bernard's,  and  between 
them,  during  the  two  years  in  which  they  worked 
together,  there  was  the  greatest  cordiality  and 
goodwill.  Mr.  Drummond,  referring  to  his  connec- 
tion with  Dr.  Matheson  as  a  student  and  a  minister, 
bears  ample  testimony  to  his  high  appreciation  and 
deep  reverence  for  his  friend  and  mentor.    He  says  : 

My  first  association  with  Dr.  Matheson  was  when  I 
was  a  member  of  his  Bible-class.  The  class  met  on  a 
week  night,  and  was  attended  by  young  men,  intelligent 
artisans,  and  some  divinity  students.  He  lectured  on  the 
opening  chapters  of  Genesis.  The  lectures  were  eminently 
suggestive  and  fresh,  even  for  him.  He  was  then  at  the 
full  maturity  of  his  powers  and  at  the  height  of  his 
popularity  in  Edinburgh,  In  these,  my  divinity  student 
days,  he  showed  me  great  kindness.  I  was  often  in  his 
house,  had  many  a  smoke  and  a  chat  with  him  in  that 
spacious  study,  which  was  more  like  a  business  room  than 
a  library,  with  the  outlook  into  slummy  Dean  Street.  He 
21 


322  LAST  YEARS 

did  not  care  for  any  assistance  in  filling  or  lighting  his 
pipe.  He  spoke  always  with  great  animation,  mostly 
about  theological  or  literary  subjects.  In  1891  I  was 
elected  to  the  parish  of  Longformacus,  in  Berwickshire. 
Two  years  afterwards  Dr.  Matheson  preached  at  a  special 
service  there  in  my  newly  renovated  church.  The  long 
summer  afternoon  we  spent  at  the  Manse,  and  I  read 
aloud  to  him  passages  of  Anglican  theology. 

During  the  following  years  I  saw  him  only  at  rare 
intervals,  but  in  July  1897  I  ^^as  elected  as  his  colleague 
in  St.  Bernard's.  It  was  very  far  from  my  wish  to 
exchange  the  pastoral  simplicity  and  peace  of  a  beautiful 
moorland  parish  for  the  work  and  worry  of  a  city  charge, 
but  I  was  unanimously  elected,  and  I  knew  that  I  could 
fit  into  his  ways  and  make  things  easy  for  him  as  an 
entire  stranger  could  not  have  done.  It  was  eminently 
desirable  that  Dr.  Matheson's  services  should  be  retained 
to  the  church,  but  this  could  not  be  unless  he  had  a 
colleague  in  whom  he  had  confidence,  and  who  had  some 
tact  and  understanding.  He  received  me  with  the  greatest 
heartiness  and  kindness ;  indeed,  he  rather  overwhelmed 
me  at  the  induction  dinner  with  a  eulogy  far  beyond  the 
deserts,  either  of  myself  or  of  anyone  who  might  have 
been  elected  as  his  colleague. 

Then  I  started  on  the  actual  work  of  the  parish.  The 
arrangement  was  that  we  were  to  take  the  church  services 
alternately.  I  was  to  be  Moderator  of  Kirk  Session,  to 
teach  the  communicants'  classes,  Bible-class,  etc.,  and  do 
all  the  visitation  and  pastoral  work.  The  arrangement 
worked  out  most  harmoniously.  Dr.  Matheson  seemed 
to  have  but  one  thought :  to  put  me  forward  and  to  slip 
into  the  background  himself. 

The  arrangement  thus  amicably  entered  into 
was  cordially  carried  out  for  tv^o  years,  but  on  the 
15th  June  1899  Dr.  Matheson  wrote  the  following 
letter  to  the  Session  Clerk  of  St.  Bernard's  : — 

The  pressure  of  other  work  compels  me  to  sever  the 
remaining  thread  which  connects  me  with  St.  Bernard's. 


LAST   YEAKS  323 

I  wish  to  take  this  opportunity  of  stating  how  cordial  have 
been  my  relations  with  Mr.  Drummond.  We  have  lived 
on  terms  of  unclouded  affection,  and  we  have  never  had  a 
difference  even  of  opinion.  He  has  kept  the  church  at 
the  zenith  of  prosperity,  and  I  leave  it  in  his  hands  with 
perfect  confidence.  As  I  do  not  wish  to  resume  the 
charge  after  the  autumn  holiday,  I  desire  my  resignation 
to  take  effect  from  the  end  of  July. 

A  similar  letter  was  v^^ritten  by  him  to  the  Clerk 
of  the  Edinburgh  Presbytery.  It  was  considered 
by  that  body  on  the  28th  of  June,  and  on  the  26th 
of  July  1899  the  Presbytery  accepted  Dr.  Matheson's 
resignation.  Resolutions  passed  by  St.  Bernard's 
Kirk  Session  and  Congregation,  with  reference  to 
Dr.  Matheson's  resignation,  were  read.  The  Kirk 
Session  testified  to  the  most  cordial  relations  that 
had  existed  between  them  and  Dr.  Matheson 
during  his  thirteen  years'  ministry,  and  to  the  great 
measure  of  prosperity  that  had  characterised  the 
congregation  during  that  time.  They  earnestly 
hoped  that  he  would  long  be  spared  in  health  to 
render  further  service  to  the  Church.  The  Con- 
gregation Hkewise  expressed  in  their  resolution 
their  deep  regret  at  the  loss  they  had  sustained, 
their  high  appreciation  of  his  services,  and  their 
earnest  hope  that  he  would  long  continue  in  the 
enjoyment  of  his  well-earned  rest.  At  the  meeting 
at  which  these  resolutions  were  read  deputations 
from  the  Kirk  Session  and  Congregation  also 
appeared.  Several  of  the  members  addressed  the 
Presbytery,  and  the  remarks  of  all  were  indicative 
of  the  warm   relations   that   existed   between   Dr. 


324  LAST   YEARS 

Matheson  and  his  parishioners.  One  of  the  deputies 
said  Dr.  Matheson  could  not  retire  from  the  love, 
respect,  and  esteem  of  his  people.  Another,  who 
was  deeply  moved,  characterised  their  sorrow  as 
too  deep  for  words.  A  third  said,  he  would  like  to 
inform  the  Presbytery  of  a  single  fact,  and  one  that 
was  very  interesting  for  the  members  to  know, 
namely,  that  during  the  thirteen  years  of  Dr. 
Matheson's  ministry  in  St.  Bernard's  he  had  never 
preached  the  same  sermon  twice  to  his  congregation. 
The  Presbytery  in  accepting  his  resignation  did  so 
with  equal  regret,  which  was  somewhat  mitigated 
by  the  hope  that  a  man  so  gifted  and  so  active 
would  not  altogether  be  lost  to  the  Church. 

The  public  press  could  not  be  silent  on  a 
matter  that  was  of  interest,  not  only  to  St.  Bernard's 
congregation  and  the  Church  of  Scotland,  but  to  the 
Church  of  Christ  at  large.  Numerous  comments 
appeared  in  their  columns  on  the  event,  and  par- 
ticularly on  the  fact  that  during  the  whole  of  his 
thirteen  years'  ministry  Dr.  Matheson  had  never 
preached  to  his  congregation  the  same  sermon  twice. 
This  was  generally  regarded  as  something  very 
unique.  And  the  same  feeling  of  surprise  was 
experienced  when,  a  few  months  afterwards.  Dr. 
Matheson  delivered  a  farewell  address  to  his  con- 
gregation, which  was  held  on  all  hands  to  be  the 
most  remarkable  of  its  kind  ever  listened  to.  The 
gathering  took  place  in  the  Freemasons'  Hall, 
George  Street,  on  the  17th  November  1899.  The 
spacious  building  was  filled  to  its  utmost  capacity. 


LAST   YEARS  325 

Farewell  presentations  were  made  to  Dr.  Matheson 

and  to  his  sister,  Miss  Matheson.     Dr.  Matheson, 

after  returning  thanks  in  his  own  name  and  in  that 

of  his  sister,  said  : 

I  come  to  bid  you  one  of  the  most  remarkable  fare- 
wells that  was  ever  uttered.  Nearly  all  things  that  say 
"  Good-bye "  say  it  before  starting.  When  the  spring 
intends  to  leave  us  it  presents  us  beforehand  with  a 
primrose;  when  the  summer  purposes  to  quit  it  sends 
us  a  present  of  short  days.  But  my  farewell  has  inverted 
the  order.  I  have  first  gone  away  and  then  come  back 
to  say  "  Good-bye."  I  have  come  too  late  for  leave- 
taking.  I  have  brought  my  primrose  to  your  completed 
year.  Why  have  I  done  this  ?  Through  unfeelingness  ? 
Nay,  through  excess  of  feeling.  I  wanted  to  say  "  Good- 
morning  "  instead  of  "  Good-night."  I  wanted  to  meet 
you  when  the  first  pain  on  either  side  was  dulled  by  the 
passing  hours.  How  could  you  think  I  was  indifferent 
to  you  ?  Have  I  not  been  with  you  for  thirteen  years 
in  sunshine  and  in  shadow? — and  the  sunshine  has  been 
more  than  the  shadow.  Have  I  not  caught  the  spray 
of  your  baptismal  fonts?  Have  I  not  heard  your 
marriage-bells?  Have  I  not  seen  your  courtships  and 
your  courtesies?  Have  I  not  brought  the  grapes  of 
Eshcol  to  your  hours  of  sickness?  Have  not  your 
children  in  my  presence  flowered  into  manhood,  into 
womanhood?  Have  not  your  middle-aged  men  grown 
white  with  the  winters'  snow?  I  have  been  with  you 
in  your  Canas,  in  your  Nains,  in  your  Bethanys.  The 
cord  between  us  has  been  an  unbroken  cord,  and  it  is 
still  undissolved ;  therefore  it  is  that  I  said  not  "  Good- 
night "  but  "  Good-morning." 

I  came  a  taper  amid  the  torches.  My  place  was  down 
in  the  valley — the  Stockbridge  valley.  Do  not  think  it 
was  less  onerous  on  that  account.  There,  where  the 
Water  of  Leith  threads  its  devious  way,  you  will  meet 
humanity  unveiled.  There  you  will  see  man  outside  the 
stage,  with  the  lights  suppressed   and   the   music   silent, 


326  LAST   YEARS 

and  the  dancing  ceased  —  man  unconventional,  man 
natural,  man  struggling  hand  to  hand  with  life's  poverty 
and  toil.  These  were  the  masses  before  which  I  stood 
— an  atom  in  the  crowd.  It  was  a  tragic  spectacle;  it 
was  blind  Samson  with  his  hands  upon  the  gates  of 
Gaza.  The  Philistines  laughed ;  but  I  think  I  lifted 
these  gates  one  inch.  And  I  think  that  next  to  the 
strength  of  God,  and  next  again  to  your  kind  co-opera- 
tion, I  was  indebted  to  my  own  weakness.  These  sons 
of  toil  said,  "  Here  is  a  man  with  an  environment  no 
less  unfavourable  than  ours — barred  by  every  gate  of 
fortune,  yet  refusing  to  give  in — overtaken  by  the  night, 
yet  confident  of  the  morning.  I  say  that  such  a  spectacle 
was  a  spectacle  fitted  to  stimulate  the  toiling  Stockbridge 
masses :  the  appearing  of  a  working-man  who  by  his 
own  hammer  and  by  God's  arm  should  cleave  his  way 
through  opposing  obstacles  and  plant  his  feet  on  a  solid 
shore.  This  has  been  my  Gospel,  this  has  been  my 
message ;  by  this  shall  I  stand  or  fall.  My  sermons  may 
have  flown  over  your  heads  like  the  bird  of  Paradise; 
but  my  life  has  been  level  with  your  own — an  obstructed 
life,  a  circumscribed  life,  but  a  life  of  boundless  sanguine- 
ness,  a  life  of  quenchless  hopefulness,  a  life  which  has 
beat  persistently  against  the  cage  of  circumstance,  and 
which  even  at  the  time  of  abandoned  work  has  said  not 
"  Good-night "  but  "  Good-morning." 

Dr.  Matheson's  former  assistants,  eight  in 
number,  all  of  them  now  occupying  the  position 
of  parish  ministers  in  the  Church  of  Scotland, 
determined  not  to  be  behind  the  congregation 
of  St.  Bernard's  in  showing  their  appreciation  of 
their  late  chief.  Towards  the  end  of  October 
they  invited  him  to  a  luncheon  in  the  Balmoral 
Hotel,  and  presented  him  with  an  illuminated 
address  which  testified  to  the  kindness  which  he 
had  shown  them  and   the   enthusiasm  with  which 


LAST   YEARS  327 

he  had  inspired  them.  Between  them  there  had 
been  the  most  cordial  relations,  and  the  fact  that 
within  the  brief  period  of  thirteen  years  the  one 
succeeded  the  other  so  rapidly  in  their  promotion 
to  parishes,  was  a  proof  of  his  influence  and  of 
the  readiness  with  which  he  exercised  it.  Indeed, 
there  was  no  class  more  deeply  attached  to  Dr. 
Matheson  than  the  young  ministers  of  the  Church. 
He  was  always  prepared  to  welcome  them,  and 
to  give  them  every  encouragement  and  assistance 
in  their  work.  There  are  not  a  few  who  now 
occupy  important  positions  who  owe  their  pro- 
motion to  him.  The  concluding  paragraph  of  the 
address  testifies  to  the  whole-hearted  devotion  of 
his  former  assistants,  and  their  admiration  of  his 
character  and  work  : 

But  while  we  thus  gladly  recognise  your  widespread 
influence,  we  especially  desire  to  acknowledge  our  own 
indebtedness  to  you  as  a  teacher  and  a  friend.  When 
we  came  to  you  it  was  at  a  period  in  our  lives  when  we 
were  anxious  to  impart  the  truth  we  knew,  but  lacked 
the  knowledge  of  how  best  we  could  do  so.  From  you  we 
received  instruction  and  inspiration.  You  at  once  opened 
to  us  the  wondrous  possibilities  of  thought,  and  exemplified 
to  us  the  attractive  methods  of  expression.  That  we  were 
privileged,  during  shorter  or  longer  periods,  to  enjoy  your 
pulpit  ministry,  your  private  and  social  intercourse,  your 
kindly  and  helpful  advice,  we  are  grateful  to  the  Giver  of 
all  good  gifts. 

The  first-fruits  of  Dr.  Matheson  s  retirement 
was  his  Studies  of  the  Portrait  of  Christ.  It 
marked  a  new  and  final  stage  in  his  theological 
development,  and  proved  the  most  popular  of  all  his 


328  LAST   YEARS 

books.  The  subject  had  long  lain  in  his  mind.  It 
was  one  that  many  thought  would  have  attracted 
him  at  a  much  earlier  period  of  his  literary  life,  but 
it  was  wisely  ordered  that  he  should  take  it  in  hand 
at  a  time  when  his  thought  was  ripest  and  his 
experience  most  matured.  He  was  fond  of  treating 
his  themes  and  characters  in  the  order  of  their 
development,  and  he  himself,  as  has  already  been 
pointed  out,  was  subject  to  the  same  law  that  he 
found  governing  others.  It  was  only  towards  the 
close  of  his  life  that  he  came  to  the  study  of  Him 
who  is  the  Life ;  at  all  events,  that  he  felt  com- 
missioned to  give  to  the  world  the  fruits  of  a  study 
which,  in  very  truth,  was  life-long.  Dr.  Matheson 
began  as  a  theologian ;  he  developed  into  the 
apologist.  He  thereafter  took  up  the  role  of  the 
biblical  scholar  and  the  historian  of  religious 
thought.  In  all  his  works  there  is  to  be  found  the 
imaginative  glow  which  ever  and  anon  blossomed 
into  poetic  song,  and  that  devotional  spirit  which 
found  expression  in  his  series  of  Meditations ;  but 
it  was  only  after  he  had  traversed  the  whole  course 
of  Christian  thought  that  he  ended  where  many 
begin.  The  worship  of  Christ,  which  the  young 
convert  is  asked  to  regard  as  the  first  step  in  the 
new  life,  was,  in  a  sense,  the  last  in  the  career  of 
Dr.  Matheson.  I  do  not  desire  to  be  misunder- 
stood. That  worship  pervaded  his  life,  but  it  was 
only  towards  its  close  that  it  ripened  into  full 
maturity  and  took  possession  of  his  whole  nature. 
If  in  his  earlier  years  his  ambition  was  to  find  in 


LAST   YEARS  329 

Christianity  a  solution  of  the  problems  which  vex 
human  reason,  in  his  later  years  it  was  his  absorb- 
ing desire  to  find  in  Christ  Himself  the  solace  of 
the  human  heart  and  the  satisfaction  of  the  human 
spirit.  His  own  development,  like  that  of  his 
Master,  was  also  in  its  nature  a  descent.  It 
witnessed  the  fall  of  his  spirit  from  the  heights  of 
theology  to  the  prosaic  plains  of  religion  ;  from  the 
effort  to  cleave  the  skies  on  the  wings  of  thought  to 
the  patient  sitting  at  the  feet  of  the  Master.  It 
was  there,  at  last,  that  he  found  perfect  peace.  The 
Christ  of  Prophecy,  the  Christ  of  History,  and  the 
Christ  of  Aspiration  had  become  to  him  the  Christ 
of  Experience. 

The  book  was  issued  in  two  volumes  ;  the  first 
appeared  in  the  autumn  of  1899  and  the  second  in 
that  of  1900.  In  the  Preface  to  the  first  volume  he 
said  that  if  it  proved  a  success  he  would  continue 
his  studies  to  their  close.  Its  success  was,  for  a 
book  of  the  kind,  almost  unprecedented.  Eleven 
thousand  copies  were  sold  within  the  year.  Its 
reception  by  the  press  was  equally  hearty ;  the 
reviews  were  enthusiastic.  One  or  two  complained 
of  the  title  of  the  book,  and  wished  that  he  had 
simply  called  it  a  ''Life  of  Christ."  But  he  had 
good  reason  for  his  choice,  and  in  the  Preface  to 
the  second  volume  he  replied  to  the  critics.  '*  By 
the  Title  of  this  Book,"  he  says,  ''I  do  not  mean 
a  study  of  the  different  Portraits  which  have  been 
drawn  of  Christ,  nor  even  a  comparison  of  the 
Pictures   drawn   by  the    Four    Evangelists.      The 


330  LAST   YEARS 

Portrait  of  Christ  is  to  me  the  united  impression 
produced  upon  the  heart  by  these  four  delineations. 
My  office  is  not  that  of  a  critic,  nor  that  of  a 
creator,  nor  that  of  an  amender,  but  simply  that  of 
an  interpreter ;  I  study  the  Picture  as  it  is." 

The  first  volume  embraces  that  period  in  the 
ministry  of  our  Lord  which  ends  with  the  Feeding 
of  the  Five  Thousand.  This  miracle  the  author 
very  aptly  characterises  as  the  "  First  Communion," 
and  it  is  the  climax  in  the  first  stage  of  our  Lord's 
work.  That  stage  has  as  its  keynote  sympathy 
for  the  multitude.  During  it  we  see  Christ  giving 
Himself  to  man  and  finding  joy  in  the  giving.  In 
the  second  period  of  His  ministry,  which  closes  with 
His  death,  Christ's  aim  was  to  induce  the  multitude 
to  give  themselves  to  Him.  In  His  apparent  failure 
to  accomplish  this  lay  His  sorrow.  The  tragedy  of 
His  life  is  found  in  the  unresponsiveness  of  man. 

In  filling  in  his  conception  of  the  ministry  of 
Christ,  as  thus  indicated,  Dr.  Matheson  pays  due 
heed  to  historical  accuracy.  It  is  quite  true  that  he 
does  not  treat  the  records  of  the  life  of  Christ  after 
the  manner  of  the  modern  historical  school.  His 
is  no  dry-as-dust  production.  He  believes  that 
the  possession  of  ideas,  as  well  as  the  knowledge  of 
facts,  forms  a  necessary  equipment  of  a  biographer. 
But  he  is  careful  that  his  ideas  should  illumine  his 
facts,  and  not  overcloud  them.  In  the  opening 
chapters  the  author  deals,  in  an  original  and 
luminous  manner,  with  such  subjects  as  the 
**  Messianic  Hopes  of  the  Jews  "  and  the  "  Baptist's 


LAST   YEARS  331 

Conception  of  the  Christ."  It  Is  in  the  sixth 
chapter,  however,  that  he  gets  to  the  heart  of  the 
subject.  To  the  question.  What  Is  the  plan  of 
Christ's  life  ?  he  boldly  replies  Christ  had  no  plan. 
By  this  he  means  that  our  Lord  did  not  arrange 
beforehand  the  details  of  His  ministry.  He  had  In 
His  mind,  from  the  very  first,  the  aim  to  be  the  Holy 
One  of  God.  But  He  allowed  each  day  and  hour  to 
determine  how  that  aim  should  be  realised.  God, 
says  Dr.  Matheson,  had  a  plan  for  the  Son,  and  the 
Son  In  yielding  Himself  to  the  will  of  the  Father 
carried  out  that  plan  without  determining  Its 
contents  In  advance.  Its  general  scope,  however, 
the  author  would  find  in  St.  Paul's  conception  of 
Christ's  work,  which  is  recorded  in  the  passage  that 
says,  ''  Let  this  mind  be  in  you  which  was  In  Christ 
Jesus  who,  though  in  the  form  of  God,  thought 
equality  with  God  a  thing  not  to  be  snatched  at, 
but  emptied  Himself,  and  took  upon  Himself  the 
form  of  a  servant,  and  was  made  in  the  likeness  of 
men  ;  and  being  recognised  in  the  fashion  of  man, 
he  humbled  Himself  and  became  obedient  unto 
death,  even  the  death  of  the  cross."  This  passage 
gives  the  keynote  to  Dr.  Matheson's  conception  of 
our  Lord's  life.  For  he  holds,  In  this  matter,  St. 
Paul  to  be  a  better  guide  than  Renan,  Schenkel,  or 
Seeley.  Such  a  philosophy  of  the  life  of  Jesus,  he 
remarks,  is  the  description  of  a  ladder  of  descent. 
In  the  chapters  that  follow  he  works  out  this  con- 
ception In  detail,  not,  however.  In  a  hard-and-fast 
manner,  for  that  would  be  to  reduce  his  work  to  a 


332  LAST   YEARS 

piece  of  mechanism.  All  the  same  he  believes  that 
the  sequence  which  the  apostle  sketches  will  be 
found  to  follow,  if  not  the  steps,  at  least  the 
principle  of  the  life  of  Jesus.  In  each  event  which 
leads  up  to  the  First  Communion,  with  which  the 
volume  closes,  when  our  Lord's  sympathy  with  the 
wants  of  men  received  its  full  manifestation,  the 
human  and  philanthropic  spirit  of  the  Master  is 
seen  to  grow  ever  deeper  and  wider. 

It  is  at  this  point  that  the  second  volume  takes 
up  the  story  and  continues  it  to  its  close.  The 
pivot  on  which  this  period  in  the  life  of  Christ 
turns  is  the  thought  of  His  death.  This  is  the 
point  which  Dr.  Matheson  selects  as  the  central 
theme  of  the  volume,  and  he  has  shown  a  true 
instinct  in  doing  so.  Nowhere  else  can  one  find  a 
study  of  the  ''final  catastrophe,"  as  it  has  been 
called,  so  fresh,  so  profound,  and  on  the  whole  so 
hopeful ;  which  indeed  transforms  death  from  being 
a  "final  catastrophe"  into  a  "final  triumph." 

It  is  impossible  for  the  student  of  the  life  of 
Christ  to  read  Dr.  Matheson's  pages  without 
challenging  a  comparison  between  him  and  the 
greatest  of  those  who  have  treated  the  same 
subject.  Since  the  day  when  St.  Bonaventura, 
early  in  the  thirteenth  century,  wrote,  outside  of 
the  sacred  canon,  the  first  Vita  Christi,  more  Lives 
than  can  be  numbered  have  been  written  of  Christ. 
But  for  the  present  generation  two  studies  stand 
out  as  of  special  interest — the  Ecce  Ho7no  of  Professor 
Seeley,  and   The  Training  of  the  Twelve  by  Pro- 


LAST   YEARS  333 

fessor  Bruce.  Each  of  these  works,  in  addition 
to  its  great  power  as  a  whole,  contains  a  single 
gem,  which  of  itself  would  be  sufficient  to  redeem 
it,  supposing  it  needed  redemption,  which  it 
does  not.  The  gem  of  Ecce  Homo  is  the  story 
which  describes  the  repentance  of  a  woman — a 
story  which  has  gone  to  the  heart  of  Christendom, 
and  which  has  given  to  Christian  art  the  figure 
of  the  Magdalene.  The  gem  of  The  Training  of 
the  Twelve  is  the  anointing  at  Bethany.  Severe 
though  the  test  may  be.  Dr.  Matheson  in  each 
case  supplies  us  with  a  new  gem  which  is  worthy 
of  being  set  beside  them.  Indeed,  the  book  as  a 
whole  is  richer  than  any  that  he  ever  wrote,  in 
originality,  in  depth,  and  in  beauty  of  expression. 
A  spirit  of  calmness  pervades  it ;  there  is  a  sure- 
ness  of  touch  in  the  thought  as  well  as  in  the 
style.  It  bristles  with  suggestions ;  it  is  bold  and 
yet  reverent,  deep  yet  devotional.  He  might  well 
call  it  Studies  of  the  Portrait  of  Christ,  for  it  is 
a  veritable  picture  gallery  in  which  one  loves  to 
linger.  The  Character,  whose  lineaments  he  traces, 
is  depicted  in  every  stage  of  His  development,  and 
in  every  form  and  fashion  of  His  unique  career.  The 
lines  may  be  few,  but  they  are  drawn  by  a  master- 
hand.  Each  chapter  introduces  a  fresh  aspect  and 
shows  a  new  feature.  Round  the  central  Figure  are 
grouped  the  leading  members  of  the  League  of 
Pity ;  filling  in  the  background  are  the  sisters  of 
Bethany,  the  sorrowing  Magdalene,  the  scowling 
Pharisee,  and  the    promiscuous  crowd.     Nineteen 


334  LAST   YEARS 

centuries  of  thought  and  progress  combine,  in  the 
hands  of  Dr.  Matheson,  to  re-create  the  first  century, 
and  to  give  us  back  the  Christ  of  religion,  whom 
the  Christ  of  theology  had  taken  away. 

The  hope  was  expressed  by  the  members  of  the 
Presbytery  of  Edinburgh,  when  Dr.  Matheson  gave 
in   his   resignation   as   minister   of   St.   Bernard's, 
that  his  services  as  a  preacher  would  not  be  lost 
to   the    Church.       He   amply    fulfilled   that   hope. 
One  of  the  burdens  of  his  of^ce  as  the  incumbent 
of  a  stated  charge  was  that  he  had,  in  addition  to 
his  immediate  duties,  to  meet  the  constant  and  re- 
peated demands  made  upon  him  for  special  services 
by  ministers  and  congregations  of  nearly  all  the 
Protestant  denominations  in  the  land.     He  did  his 
best  to  meet   their   wishes,   and   he    endeavoured 
once   a   month  to  preach   in    other  churches  than 
his  own.     After  he  was  freed  from  St.   Bernard's 
he  responded  to  these  requests  more  readily,  and 
for  the  first  few  years  he  was  active  in  preaching 
special  sermons  in  different  parts  of  the  country. 
There  was  one  class  in  particular  that  loved  to 
hear  him.     During  the  first  year  of  his  ministry  in 
Edinburgh  he    was   invited   to    deliver    inaugural 
addresses  to  the  theological  students  of  three  such 
different  Colleges  as   the    Edinburgh   University, 
the    United    Presbyterian     Hall,    and    the    Free 
Church   College   of  Glasgow.     He   was   a   prime 
favourite  with  Scottish  students,  and  if  there  was 
one  University  city  in  which  he  was  more  popular 
than  another  it  was  Aberdeen.     He  visited  it  on 


LAST   YEARS  335 

several  occasions,  and  was  always  gladly  welcomed. 
The  most  important  of  these  was  when,  at  the 
invitation  of  the  University,  he  came  to  deliver  one 
of  the  Murtle  Lectures.  This  was  in  December 
1 90 1,  and  Professor  Nicol,  who  presided,  has 
furnished  me  with  the  following  interesting  account 
of  Dr.  Matheson's  address  : — 

I  wish  your  request  to  say  something  about  Dr. 
Matheson's  pulpit  appearances  in  Aberdeen  had  fallen 
into  more  competent  hands.  But  I  had  a  sincere  admir- 
ation of  his  genius,  and  as  a  colleague  for  several  years  in 
the  Presbytery  of  Edinburgh  I  was  proud  to  win  his 
friendship  and  to  retain  it  to  the  end. 

That  he  was  exceedingly  popular  in  Aberdeen  was 
shown  by  the  large  congregations  which  assembled  to  hear 
him  on  the  rare  occasions  when  he  fulfilled  public 
engagements  in  the  city.  His  published  works  had  made 
his  name  familiar  among  all  denominations,  and  among 
Church  of  Scotland  people  he  had  long  been  known 
through  his  charming  meditations  and  poems  and  con- 
tributions to  the  Magazines.  And  of  course  his  great 
hymn,  "  O  Love  that  wilt  not  let  me  go,"  had  long  been  in 
the  Scottish  Hymnal^  and  latterly  had  found  a  place  also 
in  the  Church  Hymnary. 

It  was  at  one  of  our  University  Chapel  Summer  Services 
in  1900  that  I  heard  him  first  in  Aberdeen.  He  had 
officiated  at  least  once  on  some  public  occasion  before,  and 
had  then  been  the  guest  of  Professor  Matthew  Hay.  So 
attached  had  he  become  to  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Hay,  and  so 
much  did  he  feel  at  home  with  them,  that  on  his  later 
visits  to  the  city  he  took  up  his  abode  with  them.  And  it 
need  not  be  said  that  the  esteem  he  had  conceived  for 
them  was  warmly  reciprocated.  There  was  a  large 
attendance  of  students,  considering  that  it  was  summer, 
when  a  much  smaller  proportion  of  them  are  at  classes ; 
and,  with  as  large  a  representation  of  the  general  public 
as  our  beautiful  chapel  could  admit,  he  had  a  crowded 
audience. 


336  LAST   YEARS 

The  preacher  gave  them  of  his  very  best.  His  opening 
prayer  was  very  striking  and  uplifting,  and,  though  it  was 
short,  it  awakened  reverence  and  aroused  expectation. 
His  text  was  in  Romans  v.  20,  "  Where  sin  abounded, 
grace  did  much  more  abound " ;  a  subject  wholly  con- 
genial to  his  own  sanguine  temperament,  and  on  which 
he  based  an  appeal  to  his  student  audience  to  cherish  the 
optimism  of  youth  as  one  of  their  dearest  possessions.  As 
he  closed  a  remarkably  fresh  and  impressive  discourse, 
delivered  with  that  action  of  the  uplifted  right  arm  so 
characteristic  of  his  manner,  he  expressed  his  pride  at  being 
invited  to  preach  one  of  the  University  Sermons,  and 
showed  how  highly  he  esteemed  the  occasion. 

His  next  appearance  in  Aberdeen  was  in  December 
1901,  when  he  was  invited  by  the  University  to  deliver  one 
of  the  Murtle  Lectures.  These  Lectures  are  five  or  six  in 
the  course  of  each  winter  session,  and  are  delivered  in  the 
Mitchell  Hall,  Marischal  College.  Among  the  Lecturers 
of  recent  years  have  been  Moderators  and  past  Moderators 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  the  Bishops  of  Salisbury  and 
Stepney,  Canons  Scott  Holland  and  Hensley  Henson, 
Professor  Margoliouth  of  Oxford,  the  late  Principal  Rainy, 
and  the  late  Dr.  John  Watson  (Ian  Maclaren),  and  even 
laymen  like  Professors  M'Kendrick  and  our  own  Sir 
William  Ramsay.  For  one  labouring  under  Dr.  Matheson's 
physical  limitations  a  lecture,  usually  occupying  a  full 
hour  or  more,  must  have  been  a  trying  ordeal,  but  to  the 
end  he  held  on  his  way  with  the  ease  and  lucidity  and 
brilliance  which  marked  his  briefest  meditation.  His 
subject  was  "  The  problem  of  Job's  patience."  There  was 
a  crowded  attendance  in  the  large  Hall,  every  seat  being 
filled,  and  many  standing  in  the  passages,  and  even 
without  in  the  adjoining  picture  gallery.  When  the  great 
congregation  joined  in  singing,  as  they  did  with  unusual 
heartiness,  the  hymn  "  O  Love  that  wilt  not  let  me  go," 
one  could  see  that  the  preacher  himself  was  moved. 
When  the  lecture  began,  the  subject  which  in  less 
experienced  hands  might  have  become  commonplace  was 
opened  up  with  an  originality  and  power  which  at  once 
arrested    the    audience.      The    preacher    found    in    the 


LAST   YEARS  337 

literature  of  the  world  four  typical  notes  of  despair, — first 
and  deepest  that  of  Omar  Khayyam,  next  that  of  the  Book 
of  Ecclesiastes,  then  that  of  Pascal  in  his  Thoughts, 
and  finally  that  of  the  Book  of  Job.  To  expound  the 
significance  of  this  last,  he  set  himself  with  a  wealth  of 
illustration  the  most  effective,  and  at  the  same  time  left 
the  impression  upon  some  of  his  hearers  that  the  most 
pathetic  touches  were  derived  from  his  own  experience. 
It  was  an  effort  worthy  to  be  ranked  among  the  most 
successful  delivered  under  the  auspices  of  the  Murtle 
Bequest. 

The  relations  established  between  Dr.  Matheson  and 
the  University  of  Aberdeen  were  of  the  most  cordial 
character.  He  had  been  nominated  by  the  Senatus  for 
the  Gifford  Lectureship,  but  had  declined.  In  1902  the 
Senatus  conferred  upon  him  the  degree  of  LL.D.,  an 
honour  which  gave  him  immense  gratification.  When  he 
died,  in  the  course  of  last  year,  we  felt  that  there  had  gone 
from  us  a  unique  personality,  and  one  of  the  greatest 
ornaments  on  our  Roll  of  Honorary  Graduates. 

His  friend,  Professor  Cowan,  wrote  a  letter  to 
Miss  Matheson  on  the  evening  on  which  the 
address  was  delivered,  in  which  he  says  : 

Your  brother  was  in  excellent  form  and  voice,  and  gave 
us  a  brilliant  lecture.  The  Hall  was  crowded,  including 
the  passages  filled  with  standers,  and  a  large  number  who 
came  fairly  punctual  had  to  go  away,  owing  to  the  failure 
of  standing  room.  The  audience  listened  with  rapt 
attention. 

Dr.  Nicol  refers  to  two  special  honours  con- 
ferred on  Dr.  Matheson  by  the  University  of 
Aberdeen,  They  offered  him,  in  1899,  the  Gifford 
Lectureship,  and  in  1902  they  conferred  upon 
him  the  degree  of  LL.D.  It  was  a  disappoint- 
ment to  many  when  he  declined  the  Lectureship. 
It  was  the  greatest  gift  in  the  hands  of  the 
22 


338  LAST   YEARS 

Senatus,  and  one  that  is  only  bestowed  upon 
the  most  distinguished  men.  Many  wondered 
why  he  declined  this  honour.  I  remember 
speaking  to  him  about  it  at  the  time,  and  ex- 
pressing the  general  regret  at  his  inability  to 
deliver  the  lecture.  He  replied  that  the  reason 
was  one  of  health.  His  doctor  had  forbidden 
him.  This  was  the  very  year  in  which  he  had 
resigned  St.  Bernard's.  He  may  not  have  been 
aware  at  the  time  of  any  failing  of  health,  but 
there  is  no  doubt  that  this  fact  may  have  had  not 
a  little  to  do  with  his  determination  to  relinquish 
his  charge.  The  great  strain  under  which  he 
had  worked  for  so  many  years,  and  the  worries 
attendant  on  the  arrangements  which  led  to  the 
appointment  of  a  colleague,  told  upon  him,  and  he 
now  began  for  the  first  time  to  realise  that 
physically  he  was  not  the  man  that  he  used  to  be. 
The  question  of  the  lectures  themselves  could 
not  have  seriously  troubled  him,  for  he  had 
already  in  manuscript  a  full  course  on  the  very 
subject  on  which  he  would  have  had  to  speak. 
This  volume  was  evidently  meant  for  publication, 
but  it  has  never  seen  the  light ;  it  is  on  Natural 
Religion. 

The  other  honour  conferred  upon  him  was  the 
degree  of  LL.D.  He  was  greatly  gratified  at  this 
recognition,  especially  on  the  part  of  a  University 
that  was  not  his  own.  But  to  do  Glasgow  justice, 
it  was  an  open  secret  that  the  Senate  had  resolved 
that    very  spring  to    bestow   upon  him  the  same 


LAST   YEARS  339 

degree,  but  it  was  anticipated  by  Aberdeen,  much 
to  the  regret  of  the  Professors,  for  they  felt  that 
his  own  University  would  honour  itself  in  honouring 
him.  Principal  Story,  in  particular,  was  anxious  to 
make  every  reparation  for  Glasgow's  tardiness,  and 
if  both  had  lived  but  a  little  longer  it  was  the 
intention  of  the  Principal  to  propose  Matheson  for 
the  degree  of  D.D.  Many  years  previously,  in 
1890,  he  had  been  made  a  Fellow  of  the  Royal 
Society  of  Edinburgh,  so  that  at  the  comparatively 
early  age  of  fifty-nine  he  was  the  recipient  of  all 
the  Academic  honours  that  his  native  country  could 
bestow  upon  him. 

The  other  occasion  on  which  Dr.  Matheson 
appeared  to  greatest  advantage  as  a  special 
preacher  was  when,  in  October  of  1903,  he  delivered 
the  annual  sermon  in  Brunswick  Chapel,  Leeds,  in 
connection  with  the  Wesleyan  Missionary  Society. 
This  was  not  by  any  means  the  first  occasion  on 
which  he  had  appeared  in  an  English  pulpit.  He 
had  previously  preached  at  Bradford  and  other 
places ;  indeed,  he  was  as  much  sought  after  by 
congregations  across  the  Border  as  in  his  own 
land.  The  hold  which  he  had  upon  the  members 
of  other  communions  was  most  remarkable.  He 
was  as  popular  with  other  denominations  as  with 
his  own.  There  was  no  church,  for  example,  in 
which  he  preached  more  frequently  than  in  Free 
St.  George's,  Edinburgh,  and  for  Dr.  Alexander 
Whyte  he  had  the  greatest  admiration  and  regard. 
The   esteem    was   mutual.      They   were   the   two 


340  LAST   YEARS 

outstanding  ministers  of  Edinburgh.  For  origin- 
ality of  thought  and  freshness  of  treatment  they 
had  no  equal.  Dr.  Whyte,  on  the  appearance  of 
the  Studies  of  the  Portrait  of  Christ,  sent  the 
following  letter  to  Dr.   Matheson  : — 

Balmacara,  Loch  Alsh,  N.B. 

Dear  Dr.  Matheson, — On  the  last  day  of  my  Loch 
Alsh  holiday,  a  cold  wet  day,  I  have  read  your  brilliant 
Portrait  of  Christ,  at  a  long  down-sitting  and  pen  in 
hand.  And  now  I  sit  down  to  put  my  notes  of  your 
book  in  order  for  future  inspiration  and  use.  It  is  a  true 
test  of  a  work  of  genius  that  its  touch  fertilises  the  mind 
of  the  reader,  and  my  mind  and  my  heart  have  both  been 
fertilised  to-day  over  your  deep  and  beautiful  book. — With 
warm  love  and'  honour,  ALEXANDER  Whyte. 

In  a  communication  from  Dr.  Whyte,  he  says  : 
''  I  never  heard  Dr.  Matheson  preach,  though  more 
than  once  he  took  my  place  in  my  absence ;  but 
always  when  he  preached  for  me,  there  was  an 
outburst  of  praise  among  my  people,  most 
unanimous  and  most  thankful.  I  never  could 
account  for  the  extraordinary  kind  words  he 
would  employ  about  myself,  or  rather,  I  always 
accounted  for  them  as  the  outcome  of  his  extra- 
ordinary deep  and  warm  heart." 

His  discourse  at  Leeds  was  on  the  "  Boundless- 
ness of  the  Bible,"  based  on  2  Timothy  ii.  9,  "  The 
Word  of  God  is  not  bound."  It  was  a  Missionary 
sermon,  and  one  of  the  most  characteristic  that  he 
ever  delivered.  *'The  attraction  of  a  great 
preacher  and  the  power  of  the  pulpit,"  says  a 
correspondent,  **  were  shown  on  Wednesday  evening, 


LAST   YEARS  341 

when,  in  spite  of  pouring  rain,  people  came  from 
all  parts  to  hear  the  annual  Missionary  sermon  in 
Brunswick  Chapel.  The  sermon  was  an  extra- 
ordinary deliverance,  in  treatment  as  in  manner. 
Dr.  Matheson's  striking  delivery  and  vibrant  voice, 
added  to  his  original  way  of  dealing  with  his 
subject,  at  once  arrested  attention  and  kept  it 
undiminished  till  the  close."  The  Wesleyan 
Church,  as  a  whole,  had  a  great  regard  for  Dr. 
Matheson.  One  of  its  leading  ministers  has 
written  to  the  effect : 

I  thought  probably  you  would  be  pleased  to  know,  in 
so  strenuous  a  Church  as  the  Primitive  Methodist  Church, 
Dr.  Matheson  was  greatly  loved  and  read.  I  was  sur- 
prised to  discover  how  strong  was  the  devotion  in  our 
Church  to  this  prophet-seer,  and  it  has  given  me  no  little 
joy  that  there  is  the  clearest  evidence  that  Matheson's 
soul  has  passed  into  many  souls  in  our  Church,  and  he 
lives  again  in  lives  made  better  by  his  presence. 

In  1 90 1,  the  year  following  the  publication  of 
the  second  volume  of  his  Portrait  of  Christ,  he 
published  two  books.  Times  of  Retirement  and  The 
Sceptre  withottt  a  Sword.  The  first  was  a  volume 
of  meditations,  the  second  a  Christmas  idyll.  I 
well  remember  the  inception  of  his  Times  of  Re- 
tirefnent.  Some  elo^hteen  months  before  its 
appearance  I  happened  to  be  on  a  visit  to  him. 
It  was  at  the  time  when  I  was  making  preparations 
for  my  editing  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  weekly 
journal.  Saint  Andrew.  He  took  a  deep  interest 
in  the  venture,  and  as  I  was  leaving  he  asked  to 
be  excused  for  a  moment,  and  on  returning  he  had 


342  LAST   YEARS 

in  his  hand  a  brown  paper  parcel,  carefully  bound 
up,  and  with  evident  delight  he  handed  it  to  me 
and  said,  ''There's  my  Christmas  present  for  Saint 
Andrew.''  On  opening  the  parcel  I  discovered 
that  it  contained  twenty  meditations.  When  they 
had  appeared  he  sent  me  fresh  instalments.  When 
they  too  had  run  their  course  in  the  magazine, 
the  series  was  published  in  volume  form,  with  a 
brief  ''  Biographical  Sketch  of  the  Author,"  written 
by  me  at  the  request  of  the  publishers.  These 
valued  contributions  were  a  free  gift  from  him 
and  a  mark  of  his  friendship,  and  he  continued 
to  write  regularly  for  the  journal  until  his  death, 
and  on  the  same  terms.  Indeed,  the  last  book 
published  by  him,  Rests  by  the  River,  first  saw 
the  light  in  Saint  Andrew,  a  fact  which  he  is  care- 
ful to  note  in  the  very  first  line  of  his  Preface. 
It  was  also  a  book  of  devotional  meditations,  and 
was  published  in  the  spring  of  1906.  The  Sceptre 
without  a  Sword  is  a  charming  booklet,  based  on 
the  vision  of  Daniel,  "  I  saw  in  the  night  visions, 
and,  behold,  one  like  the  Son  of  Man  came  with  the 
clouds  of  heaven.  .  .  .  And  there  was  given  Him  a 
kingdom"  (vii.  13).  Dr.  Matheson  interprets  the 
vision  of  the  old  Hebrew  seer  in  the  liofht  of  the 
history  of  the  world  since  the  coming  of  Christ. 
He  argues  that  the  secret  of  the  difference  between 
ancient  and  modern  times  is  the  influence  of 
Christmas  Day  ;  in  other  words,  the  fact  that  the 
hearts  of  modern  men  have  been  dominated  by  a 
Man  of  sacrifice — simple  motives  setting  in  move- 


LAST   YEARS  343 

ment  great  forces,  the  wheels  of  time  quickened  by 
the  heart  finding  impulse  and  inspiration  in  the 
sublime  events  associated  with  Christmas-time.  In 
this  helping  of  man  by  man  he  finds  the  hope  that 
differences  which  now  separate  men  will  be 
hushed,  and  the  notes  of  a  common  Hymnal 
drawing  all  together  in  that  meridian  hour  of 
Christmas  Day  when  the  last  vestige  of  difference 
shall  be  removed. 

His  contributions  to  periodical  literature  during 
this  period  were  not  numerous.  It  is  true  that  in 
1 90 1  he  wrote  a  series  of  eleven  articles  to  The 
Expositor  on  ''  Scientific  Lights  on  Religious 
Problems."  He  now  regarded  the  old  war  between 
science  and  religion  as  at  an  end,  and  he  himself 
was  an  important  factor  in  bringing  the  strife  to  so 
happy  and  fruitful  an  issue.  He  now  calls  in  Science 
as  the  handmaid  of  Religion,  and  in  these  articles  he 
shows  how  the  great  doctrines  of  the  Christian 
Faith  can  be  interpreted  by  it.  In  the  previous 
year,  1900,  he  wrote  an  article  to  The  London 
Quarterly  Review  on  the  ''  Characteristics  of  Bible 
Portraiture."  It  was  a  preparation  for  his  next 
important  book.  In  this  article  he  promulgates 
the  views  which  he  afterwards  embodied  in  his 
Portrait  of  Christ  and  The  Representative  Men  of 
the  Bible, 

It  was  in  the  autumn  of  1902  that  the  first  of 
his  striking  books  on  Bible  characters  appeared. 
He  published  it  under  the  above  title,  The  Repre- 
sentative Men  of  the  Bible,     ''  By  this,"  he  says, 


344  LAST   YEARS 

'*  I  mean  the  men  of  the  Bible  who  represent 
phases  of  the  Bible,  irrespective  of  place  and  time, 
and  I  consider  them  only  in  those  incidents  in 
which  they  are  representative.  These  studies,"  he 
continues,  *'are  not  historical,  they  are  not 
critical.  They  are  an  analysis  of  the  portraits  as 
we  see  them,  without  any  attempt  to  inquire  how 
or  when  they  came."  He  follows  the  method 
which,  for  a  brief  study  of  any  human  character,  is 
always  the  most  illuminating  ;  he  adopts  a  point  of 
view.  He  looks,  so  to  speak,  at  the  individual 
whom  he  intends  to  sketch  ;  focuses  the  incidents 
of  his  life  and  the  features  of  his  character,  and 
allows  himself  to  be  impressed  by  the  idea  which  is 
then  produced.  This  he  regards  as  the  soul  of 
the  man,  the  mental  or  spiritual  fact  represented 
by  him  ;  and  it  is  what  he  pictures.  No  one  was 
more  capable  of  excelling  in  a  work  of  this  kind 
than  Dr.  Matheson.  His  point  of  view  may  to 
the  prosaic  mind  seem  at  times  a  little  far-fetched. 
As  occasionally  happens,  when  this  method  is 
adopted,  violence  may  be  done  to  certain  features 
which  do  not  harmonise  with  the  image  that  the 
artist  has  in  his  mind.  But  taken  as  a  whole  it  is 
a  suggestive  method,  one  which  lifts  its  subject 
out  of  the  crowd  of  details  which  obscure  the 
character  in  place  of  revealing  it.  Matheson 
pondered  each  "  Representative  Man "  in  turn. 
He  allowed  the  subject  for  the  time  being  to 
possess  him  ;  he  brought  his  own  creative  genius 
to  work  upon  it,  and  the  result  is  a  portrait  gallery 


LAST   YEARS  345 

of  Bible  characters  which  has  few  equals  in 
Christian  literature.  The  three  volumes  which 
he  published,  two  on  the  Old  Testament  and  one 
on  the  New,  are  as  certain  to  live  as  anything  he 
ever  wrote.  The  first  volume  was  received  by 
public  and  press  with  much  enthusiasm.  In  a 
short  time  it  reached  a  fourth  edition.  These 
volumes,  along  with  his  Shtdies  of  the  Portrait  of 
Christ  and  his  Meditations,  have  had  the  largest 
sale  of  all  his  works,  and  give  every  hope  of  con- 
tinuing to  attract  readers  for  many  a  day.  One 
feature  common  to  them  all  is  the  devotional  note 
with  which  each  chapter  ends  ;  and  the  following 
interesting  letter  from  a  missionary  of  the  Pres- 
byterian Church  in  Japan  bears  striking  testimony 
to  Matheson's  far-reaching  influence  : — 

Matsuyama,  Japan, 
May  12,  1906. 

Dear  Dr.  Matheson, — My  wife  and  I  were  of  some 
help  to  a  Japanese  military  doctor  who  was  very  sick 
during  the  late  war  with  Russia,  and  upon  his  recovery  to 
health  he  asked  me  many  things  about  Christianity,  and 
especially  about  prayer.  I  am  teaching  English  in  a 
Government  school  here  in  Matsuyama,  and  asked  one  of 
the  English-speaking  Japanese  teachers  to  translate  into 
Japanese  the  prayer  which  follows  on  your  study  of 
David  in  Representative  Men  of  the  Bible.  This  doctor 
said  that  the  prayer  is  comprehensive,  and  he  used  it  every 
day.  While  not  yet  baptized,  I  think  the  Lord  has  been 
guiding  him  by  this  sickness  to  the  truth.  I  thought  per- 
haps you  might  be  interested  to  know  that  your  prayer 
has  had  an  influence  even  in  Japan,  and  thus  the  scope  of 
your  work  has  been  enlarged  more  than  you  might  think. 
I  thank  the  Lord  that  He  has  qualified  you  for  being  such 
a  help  and  comfort,  to  many  like  myself,  through  your 


346  LAST  YEARS 

printed  works.  I  have  had  such  pleasure  in  reading  your 
books,  and  in  feeling  through  them  the  warmth  of  your 
spiritual  nature.  I  hope  you  will  still  have  many  years  of 
being  the  teacher  of  God's  comfort  to  others,  even  as  He 
has  taught  you  of  His  comfort. — Yours  very  sincerely, 

A.  V.  Bryan. 

To  this  Dr.  Matheson  replied  : 

14  Belgrave  Crescent, 
June  13,  1906. 

Please  accept  my  very  best  thanks  for  your  very 
kind  communication  !  It  is  my  greatest  joy  in  life  to 
learn  that  my  poor  effort  affords  help  and  comfort  to  my 
fellow-man.  It  is  truly  good  of  you  to  send  me  such  a 
high  appreciation  of  my  work.  But  specially  am  I  rejoiced 
to  know  that  my  words  have  influence  outside  the  Church 
of  Christ ;  this  is  indeed  a  thing  of  which  one  may  be  justly 
proud.  But,  for  that  matter,  I  have  the  greatest  admira- 
tion for  the  Japanese  nation  ;  and  I  firmly  believe  that,  in 
the  main,  they  live  the  Christian  life.  I  cannot  but  think 
that  that  life  will  yet  shape  itself  in  the  form  of  a  creed 
which  will  inspire  them  with  the  hope  everlasting,  and 
stimulate  the  duties  of  earth  by  the  light  of  heaven. — 
Yours  very  sincerely,  etc. 

Hearers  of  Dr.  Matheson's  sermons  v^ere  v^ell 
aware  of  the  variety  of  his  intellectual  and  literary 
interests.  He  appeared  in  the  pulpit  with  a  Divine 
message,  but  one  that  was  lit  up  and  illustrated  by 
the  fruits  of  his  multifarious  reading.  His  books, 
treating  for  the  most  part  of  theological  and 
religious  subjects,  fail  to  give  the  same  impression 
of  his  wide  culture.  In  truth,  however,  he  was  quite 
as  much  interested  in  secular  literature  as  in  sacred, 
and  his  knowledge  of  the  one  was  almost  as  exten- 
sive as  his  knowledge  of  the  other.  It  was  a 
surprise  to  many  when,  in  the  spring  of  1905,  an 


LAST   YEARS  347 

article  by  him  appeared  in  the  Glasgow  Evening 
News  on  the  '*  Modern  English  Novel,"  showing 
an  acquaintance  with  the  popular  authors  of  the 
day  quite  as  extensive  as  and  much  more  informing 
than  that  of  the  professional  novel  reader ;  and  the 
surprise  of  others  was  almost  as  great  when  in 
the  previous  year,  at  the  annual  dinner  of  the 
Edinburgh  Ninety  Burns  Club,  he  delivered  his 
remarkable  oration  on  the  poet.  Dr.  Mathe- 
son's  friends  were  well  aware  of  his  admiration 
for  the  national  bard.  His  enthusiasm  broke  out 
now  and  again  in  the  pulpit,  and  in  one  instance 
he  made  a  happy  use  of  a  famous  passage  in  the 
life  of  Christ  to  illustrate  and  in  a  sense  to  justify 
the  poet's  character.  In  his  Portrait  of  Christ, 
remarking  on  an  incident  which  he  says  has  trans- 
fixed the  attention  of  the  world,  the  contrasted 
attitude  of  the  Pharisees  and  of  Christ  in  the 
presence  of  an  unfortunate  woman,  there  is  the 
following  striking  passage  : — 

This  particular  kind  of  sin  was  precisely  the  one  from 
which  a  Pharisee  was  apt  to  be  free.  There  are  cases  in 
which  Satan  casts  out  Satan ;  there  are  men  and  women 
who  are  exempt  from  certain  vices  simply  through  the 
presence  of  other  vices.  A  cold,  phlegmatic  nature  would 
never  commit  the  sins  of  Robert  Burns.  This  does  not 
justify  Robert  Burns  ;  but  it  shows  that  one  disease  may 
be  cured  by  another  disease.  It  is  a  matter  of  daily 
experience  that  the  advent  of  a  new  ailment  may  cause 
an  already  existing  ailment  to  subside ;  there  are  forms  of 
physical  illness  which  cannot  live  together.  There  are 
forms  of  moral  illness  which  are  also  mutually  antagonistic. 
I  cannot  imagine  that  the  typical  Judas  Iscariot  could 
ever  have  been   guilty  of  that  form  of  sin  which  char- 


348  LAST   YEARS 

acterised  this  woman.  The  man  who  could  carefully 
count  out  thirty  pieces  of  silver  as  the  price  of  his  Lord's 
betrayal  would  never  have  committed  the  miscalculations 
of  her  who  squandered  life,  reputation,  respectability,  on 
the  sensuous  passion  of  an  hour. 

So  much  for  Dr.  Matheson's  conception  of  the 
character  of  Burns ;  it  reveals  at  once  his  Insight 
and  his  charity.  In  his  Edinburgh  address  It  is  the 
poetry  of  Burns  that  forms  his  subject,  and  the  tvi^o 
notes  which,  to  his  thinking,  distinguish  It  are  its 
sympathy  and  universality.  He  aptly  illustrates 
the  former  by  a  reference  to  Burns's  poem  on  the 
Daisy.  ''Did  It  ever  occur  to  you  to  ask,"  he 
exclaims,  "  v^hy  he  speaks  of  the  flower  as  '  crimson 
tipped '  ? — 

Is  it  not  the  fact?  you  say.  Of  course:  but  I  doubt 
very  much  if  that  is  why  Burns  said  it.  Burns  is  not  the 
maker  of  an  almanac.  He  never  records  facts  just  because 
they  are  facts,  he  has  always  a  reason  beyond.  And  if  I 
am  not  greatly  mistaken  he  had  a  reason  here.  He  has 
been  calling  the  daisy  "  modest."  What  is  the  expression 
of  modesty?  Is  it  not  blushing  —  blushing  crimson. 
Could  any  two  epithets  come  together  more  beautifully, 
more  harmoniously?  Crashaw  once  wrote  a  poem  on 
the  Miracle  of  Cana  of  Galilee ;  he  wrote  it  in  one  line 
— "The  Conscious  Water  knew  its  Lord,  and  blushed." 
Burns,  I  think,  had  the  same  thought  about  the  daisy.  It 
grew  upon  the  mountain-top  and  saw  the  glory.  And 
it  blushed  before  the  glory.  It  felt  its  own  inherent 
nothingness  and  the  crimson  dyed  its  face. 

In  referring  to  the  second  note  of  Burns's  poetry, 
its  universality,  Dr.  Matheson  remarks  : 

This   man   is  an   instrument  of  ten  strings  —  of  all 
possible  strings.     He  wears  the  garb  of  Scotland  but  he 


LAST   YEARS  349 

is  the  poet  of  Humanity.  His  accent  is  provincial  but  his 
speech  is  cosmopolitan.  He  sings  in  a  national  dialect, 
but  he  delivers  a  message  to  man.  The  hands  are  the 
hands  of  Esau,  but  the  voice  is  the  voice  of  Jacob.  We 
claim  him  as  the  property  of  our  separate  land,  but  in 
truth  he  has  made  our  land  universal.  This  man,  in  a 
literary  sense,  has  soared  above  principalities  and  powers. 
He  is  neither  Jew  nor  Greek,  barbarian  nor  Roman,  bond 
nor  free.  He  is  neither  Scotch  nor  English ;  he  is  neither 
French  nor  Italian ;  he  is  neither  Dutch  nor  German :  he 
is  neither,  and  yet  he  is  all  these — he  is  human.  It  is  on 
this  we  base  his  claim  to  immortality.  Nationalities  will 
die.  Even  though  the  foot  of  an  enemy  should  touch 
them  not,  time  changes  their  countenance  and  disrobes 
them  of  their  vesture.  The  nationality  of  Scotland  itself 
has  faded  in  the  ever-increasing  assimilation  to  her 
wealthier  sister.  But  Burns  has  not  faded.  He  stands 
on  the  mountain-top  in  full  vision  of  that  Canaan  where 
the  immortals  dwell,  and  his  eye  is  not  dim  nor  his  natural 
strength  abated. 

The  great  annual  break  in  Dr.  Matheson's  life, 
v^hen  he  was  minister  of  St.  Bernard's,  vv^as  his 
summer  holiday.  He  took  tv^o  full  months,  August 
and  September,  and  during  them  he  w^ould  preach 
for  no  one.  For  the  first  fifteen  years  of  his  life 
in  Edinburgh  he  spent  his  summer  vacation  on  the 
west  coast,  chiefly  at  Craigmore,  Skelmorlie,  or 
Largs.  He  did  a  certain  amount  of  work  each  day, 
and  enjoyed  being  read  to  as  usual,  but  he  took 
frequent  sails  on  the  river  steamers  and  long 
drives  into  the  country.  Latterly,  however,  he 
preferred  to  go  to  the  east  coast,  and  for  several 
summers  in  succession  he  spent  his  holiday  at 
North  Berwick.  The  quiet  of  the  place,  its 
bracing  sea-breezes,  its  variety  of  carriage  drives, 


350  LAST   YEARS 

and  its  congenial  society,  all  appealed  to  him.  It 
was  there  that  he  made  the  friendship  of  Dr.  Hately 
Waddell,  and  the  two  had  frequent  intercourse 
together.  Dr.  Waddell,  who  had  a  great  admira- 
tion for  his  friend,  has  communicated  to  me  certain 
impressions  which  are  particularly  accurate  and 
interesting.     He  remarks,  for  example  : 

Dr.  Matheson  was  in  the  habit  of  saying,  in  his 
paradoxical  way,  that  blindness  was  not  the  want  of  sight 
but  in  reality  too  much  sight.  He  was  blind,  he  would 
say,  not  because  he  saw  too  little  but  because  he  saw  too 
much.  Blindness  was  excessive  light,  and  the  time  of 
revelation  for  him  was  in  the  night ;  then  he  saw  clearly. 
He  was  fond  of  expressing  himself  in  paradoxes,  and  it 
was  difficult  sometimes  to  know  how  far  he  was  in  earnest 
in  statements  of  this  kind.  But  certainly  no  other  form  of 
words  could  so  well  have  described  his  temperament 
either  as  a  writer  or  a  preacher.  All  his  work,  written  or 
spoken,  was  a  transcription  of  what  he  mentally  saw. 
Truth  came  to  him  as  a  vision  ;  he  did  not  reason  it  out. 
He  had  a  vivid  picture  of  it  complete  at  once,  and  its 
certainty  was  more  or  less  tested  by  the  vividness  of  the 
form  it  assumed  in  his  mind. 

What  chiefly  struck  Dr.  Waddell  was  Matheson's 
impressionist  temperament,  which,  he  says, 

gave  such  force  to  his  preaching  and  such  vividness  to 
his  writing.  His  power  lay  in  holding  up  to  others  the 
same  living  impression  of  a  subject  which  he  himself  had 
experienced.  His  preaching  was  not  so  much  the 
elucidation  of  a  text  or  of  a  theme  as  the  re-telling  of 
a  series  of  graphic  impressions  which  the  subject  had 
already  made  on  the  preacher,  each  of  which  seemed  to 
absorb  for  the  time  the  whole  truth  of  life.  Hence  also 
his  writings,  even  his  earlier  works,  assumed  chiefly  a 
descriptive    rather    than    an    argumentative    form,    and 


LAST   YEARS  351 

finally  became  by  preference  a  series  of  portraits  or  picture 
studies. 

But  while  his  genius  was  thus  poetical,  pictorial, 
and  imaginative,  and  while  he  proclaimed  himself 
to  be  an  idealist, 

he  never  allowed  either  poetry  or  imagination  to  run 
away  with  him.  His  work  was  all  of  an  exact  and 
practical  kind.  Whether  for  pulpit  or  press  his  ideal 
conceptions  were  reduced  to  the  actual  necessities  of  the 
occasion.  The  most  poetical  themes  and  exalted  views  of 
life  and  history  became  real  and  persuasive  to  those  who 
listened  or  read.  No  great  man  is  vague  in  his  thinking, 
and  Dr.  Matheson  shared  this  characteristic  of  true 
greatness :  that  he  worked  out  all  his  thought  to  its 
legitimate  conclusions  and  left  a  large  and  complete 
picture  of  it  on  the  imagination  and  memory.  The  truths 
of  religion  and  history  he  regarded  as  universal,  and  the 
differences  of  time,  or  thought,  or  nationality,  merely 
incidental.  He  would  have  held  himself  as  defrauded  of 
an  inalienable  right  had  he  been  forbidden  to  translate  the 
teaching  of  the  Bible  into  all  the  varied  conditions  and 
vernacular  of  to-day.  His  chief  mission,  he  latterly 
thought,  was  just  this  form  of  translation  of  Bible  truths 
into  modern  conditions.  Not  necessarily  the  illumination 
of  antique  formulas  but,  certainly,  the  reconstruction  of 
them  by  modern  ideas. 

Dr.  Waddell  is  in  doubt  as  to  Whether  he  was 
more  theological  or  devout  in  his  nature,  whether 
he  was  more  reasoning  or  emotional  in  his  habit  of 
thought.  He  thinks  both  tendencies  were  fairly 
well  balanced,  and  that  in  his  writings  there  is  a 
unique  combination  of  both.      "  It  is  true,"  he  adds, 

that  his  more  reasoned  themes  had  a  great  influence  on 
current  opinion,  especially  perhaps  The  Old  Faith  and 
the  NezVy  which  Tennyson  is  said  to  have  recommended 


352  LAST   YEARS 

to  the  late  Duke  of  Argyll,  and  which  Sir  Andrew  Clark 
recommended  to  many  friends  as  the  best  antidote  to 
atheism.  But  the  most  of  these  works  were  the  outcome 
of  his  historical  and  theological  reading,  and  are  not  so 
peculiar  to  his  genius  as  his  more  individual  meditations 
on  devotional  subjects.  I  should  say  that  naturally  his 
temperament  was  more  that  of  the  preacher  than  of  the 
author,  and  that  subjects  which  were  treated  from  the 
standpoint  of  the  preacher  were  both  more  congenial  to 
himself  and  more  helpful  to  his  readers. 

Referring  to  his  most  abiding  mood,  during  his 
later  years,  he  says  : 

The  truth  of  Christianity,  which  chiefly  appealed  to 
him,  was  not  any  dogmatic  definition  of  its  special 
purposes  and  aims,  but  the  broader  revelation  it  contained 
of  the  immanence  of  the  Divine  in  the  human,  of  the 
eternal  in  the  temporal,  of  the  spiritual  in  the  natural. 
Nothing  indeed  appealed  to  him  more  than  this  Christian 
consecration  of  the  natural  and  commonplace,  of  the 
apparently  common  and  unclean.  This  was  the  Gospel 
of  his  later  years :  the  immanence  of  the  Divine  in  the 
human,  in  all  life  and  in  all  conditions  of  life.  This,  too, 
was  the  ever-recurring  theme  of  his  conversation,  it  was 
not  so  much  a  philosophy  as  simply  a  spiritual  conviction, 
learned  direct  from  Christ. 

Wherein,  asks  Dr.  Waddell,  lay  Matheson's 
chief  value  to  the  Church  of  his  generation  ?  Putting 
aside  his  literary  v^ork,  he  would  find  the  answer  in 
his  fresh,  spontaneous,  unconventional  personality. 

He  was  a  living  rebuke  to  all  formality,  to  all  minis- 
terial mannerisms,  to  all  outworn  proprieties.  He  had 
a  unique  character,  and  it  ruled  all  his  clerical  functions. 
Like  his  conversation,  these  were  absolutely  unconven- 
tional. His  sermons  and  his  prayers  were  things  by 
themselves  ;  they  were  sometimes  startling,  but  always 
fresh  and  forceful.     He  chose  his  own  methods,  but   he 


LAST   YEARS  353 

had  strength  to  make  them  successful.  He  broke  away 
from  clerical  customs,  but  he  did  not  need  their  support. 
And  in  days  of  advancing  ritual  he  thought  the  Church 
might  perhaps  stake  too  much  upon  forms  and  proprieties. 
Much  will  be  accepted  from  one  who  lets  his  own  religious 
individuality  have  its  full  swing.  This  was  the  advice  he 
gave  as  to  ministerial  training.  He  had  great  faith  in 
human  nature  when  consecrated  to  an  ideal,  and  had  no 
patience  with  anything  artificial  or  unreal. 

Speaking  of  a  v^ell-known  trait  in  Dr.  Mathe- 
son's  character,  his  frank  outspokenness  and  free 
criticisms  of  men  and  things,  he  remarks  : 

A  strong  humanity  ruled  all  his  social  views,  though  at 
times  his  criticisms  of  individuals  were  severe.  That,  how- 
ever, was  but  one  side  of  his  criticism,  for  the  next  moment 
he  would  find  something  in  the  same  character  worthy  of 
the  highest  praise  ;  indeed,  he  passed  from  blame  to  praise 
without  delay  and  without  grudge.  It  was  his  nature  to 
be  constantly  in  extremes,  and  no  one  would  have  dreamed, 
least  of  all  he  himself,  of  taking  these  sudden  valuations 
of  character  as  prearranged  judgments.  His  whole  con- 
versation was  ecstatic  and  unpremeditated,  and  rose  and 
fell  with  quick  succession  of  varied  feelings.  It  never  was 
commonplace. 

He  had'^the  same  rapid  and  careless  w^ay  of  flashing 
out  quotations  on  what  might  seem  dangerous  occasions. 
For  when  the  application  appealed  to  him  he  could  not 
restrain  a  good-natured  criticism  or  comparison,  however 
pungent.  But,  as  one  said  who  knew  him  well,  "  These 
things  all  came  and  went  in  a  moment."  He  took  for 
granted  always  a  hearer  of  judgment  and  tact,  who  could 
sympathise  with  and  understand  the  sudden  transitions 
of  a  quick-moving  mind.  A  Homeric  simplicity  ruled 
all  his  character.  The  most  sacred  and  profane  equally 
appealed  to  him.  The  unity  of  God's  great  world  gave 
worth  and  meaning  to  everything,  even  to  things 
which  religious  society,  with  its  conventional  judgments, 
abandoned  or  condemned. 

23 


354  LAST   YEARS 

It  was  when  on  holiday  at  North  Berwick,  in 
the  autumn  of  last  year,  that  he  took  suddenly 
ill  and  died.  I  had  seen  him  in  Edinburgh  at 
the  beginning  of  June,  and  I  was  very  much  dis- 
tressed at  the  change  which  was  perceptible  in 
his  appearance.  It  is  true  that  he  was  just  re- 
covering then  from  a  serious  attack  of  influenza, 
but  it  seemed  to  me  that  the  hand  of  Death  was 
upon  him.  I  understand  he  recovered  with  sur- 
prising rapidity,  and  it  looked  as  if  he  had  many 
years  still  before  him.  The  one  object  of  interest 
to  him,  in  those  last  days,  was  the  beautiful  new 
house  which  he  had  bought  at  14  Belgrave 
Crescent.  The  last  letter  I  ever  received  from 
him  was  one  from  North  Berwick,  assuring  me  of 
the  welcome  which  he  would  give  me  in  his  new 
abode  on  his  return  home.  Mr.  William  Smith,  his 
secretary,  has  kindly  furnished  me  with  the  follow- 
ing details  regarding  Dr.  Matheson's  health  during 
the  closing  years  of  his  life  : — 

''  First,  I  did  indeed  notice  that  some  two  or 
three  years  before  his  death  he  was  not  in  a 
physical  sense  the  George  Matheson  I  had  met 
some  seven  or  eight  years  before.  He  first,  I 
fancy,  realised  his  failing  health  on  the  occasion  of 
a  trip  to  Leeds,  where  he  preached  a  great  sermon 
to  the  Wesleyan  Methodists.  From  that  time  he 
became  increasingly  averse  to  travel,  and  he  de- 
clined, right  and  left,  invitations  which  involved 
travel ;  and  before  long  he  declined  invitations  to 
preach,    whether  they  involved  travel  or  not.     It 


LAST   YEARS  355 

was  not  that  he  feared  the  preaching  itself;  he 
merely  objected  to  being  any  length  of  time  from 
his  own  house.  The  last  occasion  on  which  he 
preached  was  in  Morningside  Church,  Edinburgh,  on 
the  14th  of  February  1904.  That  sermon,  I  admit, 
appeared  to  call  from  him  a  great  physical  effort.  I 
remember,  when  disrobing  him  in  the  vestry  after- 
wards, he  was  positively  wet  with  perspiration. 
What  I  mean  is,  that  he  evidently  anticipated  this 
effort,  judged  by  what  I  recollect  was  an  unusual 
amount  of  anxiety,  for  him,  for  some  time  before 
the  event  was  due.  I  do  not  remember  his  text,  I 
only  remember  that  Morningside  Church  was  filled 
that  day,  and  that  I  was  rather  concerned  about 
his  physical  condition.  I  remember,  too,  having 
an  inkling  myself  that  he  could  not  preach  again. 
Whether  he  had  such  an  inkling  I  do  not  know  ; 
I  should  say  not ;  and,  for  that  matter,  he  was 
destined  to  make  another  public  appearance,  on  the 
occasion,  in  November  of  1904,  of  one  of  the 
annual  services  of  the  Life  Boat  Saturday  Fund 
Service.  He  delivered  a  very  fine  prayer  on  the 
Sunday  evening  at  the  Empire  Theatre.  Even 
that  occasion  caused  him  a  great  effort,  especially 
as  he  had  committed  the  prayer  to  memory — a 
practice  he  was  latterly  much  averse  to.  And  yet 
I  do  not  think  that  up  to  this  Empire  appearance, 
nor  indeed  till  much  later,  if  even  then,  he  himself 
realised  that  his  bodily  health  was  giving  way.  His 
naturally  optimistic  disposition  could  not  permit 
him  any  despondency. 


356  LAST   YEARS 

'*  He  manifested  during  the  last  years  of  his  life 
symptoms  of  that  trouble  which  In  the  end  proved 
fatal,  and  his  Increasing  shortness  of  breath  made 
him  more  and  more  reluctant  to  take  bodily 
exercise.  But  he  was  told  that  driving  exercise 
was  the  thing  for  him,  and,  latterly,  he  often  took 
this  driving  exercise  when  he  would  much  rather 
have  stayed  at  home.  The  very  work  of  getting 
in  and  out  of  his  carriage  became  more  and  more 
difficult.  Realising  this  myself,  I  latterly  volun- 
teered to  personally  assist  him  when  he  returned 
from  his  two  hours'  drive.  '  Ah  ! '  he  said  one 
day,  when  I  had  assisted  him  from  his  carriage 
to  his  study,  '  this  is  very  good  of  you.  I  am  a 
poor  creature,  and  I  don't  think  you  will  have  me 
long.'  This  happened,  I  should  think,  about  three 
weeks  before  his  death.  But  that  mood  did  not  pre- 
vail till  the  end.  During  our  working  hours  together 
he  seemed  as  cheery  and  vivacious  as  ever.  Those 
pleasantries  to  which  he  was  accustomed  were 
always  in  evidence,  and  his  laugh  was  something  in 
his  old  style.  But  if  any  instance  struck  me 
afterwards,  as  having  been  of  a  premonitory  nature, 
it  was  the  fact  which  occurred  only  some  four  hours 
before  his  apoplectic  seizure.  After  an  hour's  read 
— from  8  to  9  p.m.  on  August  27th — which  was 
commenced  upon  the  Napoleonic  vol.  (vol.  iii.  or  iv., 
I  forget  which)  of  the  Cambridge  Modern  History, 
and  finished  upon  the  lighter  diet  of  one  of  W.  E. 
Norris'  novels,  I  was  considerably  '  staggered ' 
by,   '  You  might  give  me  that  Braille,  William  ;  I 


LAST   YEARS  357 

think  I'll  do  a  little  work.'  I  should  not  have 
been  'staggered'  by  such  a  request  three  or  four 
years  earlier ;  but  not  for  a  very  long  time  had  he 
been  in  the  habit  of  '  writing  up '  anything  so  late 
in  the  day.  I  took  it  upon  me  to  remonstrate  with 
him — gently  but  firmly.  '  But  I  must  get  on  with 
my  book  ! '  \Representative  Women  of  the  Bible  ; 
published  after  his  death]  he  argued.  *  An  old  adage 
tells  us  not  to  "put  off  till  to-morrow  what  we  can 
do  to-day  " ' — a  saying  rather  suggestive,  I  think. 
At  all  events  Dr.  Matheson  could  not  have  finished 
his  book  that  day,  and  it  is  perhaps  just  as  well 
that  I  prevailed  on  him  not  to  attempt  it. 

*'  Personally,  I  have  not  much  faith  in  pre- 
monitions ;  but  that  looked  remarkably  like  some- 
thinof  of  the  sort.  But  allowinof  that  these  some- 
what  gloomy  forebodings  really  found  root  in  him, 
his  skies  were  of  a  singularly  alternating  nature. 
He  assuredly  never  thought  the  end  was  so  near. 
I  am  sure  that,  not  more  than  a  day  or  two  before 
his  death,  he  was  making  plans  regarding  his  new 
house — how  he  would  entertain  during  the  then 
coming  winter.  Then,  during  his  drive  on  August 
27th,  lasting  about  two  and  a  half  hours,  I  under- 
stood that  he  was  in  exceptionally  good  spirits. 
So  the  premonition  did  not  altogether  weigh  him 
down.  It  is  some  years  ago  now,  but  he  once 
told  me — in  a  not  altogether  jocular  way — that  he 
thought  he  should  '  never  die ' !  The  fact  is,  his 
abnormally  active  intellect  could  not  conceive  that 
intellect  in  a  state  of  passivity." 


358  LAST   YEARS 

His  sister,  Miss  Matheson,  speaking  of  the  last 
visit  to  North  Berwick,  remembers  her  brother 
saying  to  her  then,  as  he  had  often  said  before,  '*  I 
have  had  a  happy  Hfe."  ''He  also  told  me  he  thought 
he  had  a  new  note  in  his  voice,  which  made  me 
think  he  was  strong  ;  and  I  did  think  he  was  seeing 
better.  One  day  he  asked  the  doctor  if  there  was 
anything  organically  wrong,  as  he  felt  not  so  well. 
The  doctor  said,  quite  decidedly,  '  No.'  My  brother 
replied,  '  I  would  like  to  live  to  do  a  little  good.' 
Surely  God  had  more  important  work  for  him  to 
do."  "He  was  very  happy,"  she  continues,  "at 
North  Berwick,  and  full  of  bright  plans  for  the 
future.  He  enjoyed  driving  with  my  sister  Nellie 
and  me  on  the  27th,  and  was  busily  engaged  In 
writing  his  last  work  that  day.  He  retired  to  rest 
at  1 1. 1 5,  and  bade  me  his  usual  affectionate  good- 
night. At  1.30  in  the  morning  I  heard  a  slight 
moan.  My  sister  Nellie  and  I  rushed  downstairs, 
and  found  he  could  not  speak.  He  was  quite 
conscious,  however,  and  smiled  with  a  restful,  satis- 
fied look  to  us  both,  showing  that  he  knew  us 
well  and  was  glad  we  were  near.  I  was  told 
not  to  go  to  his  room,  as  the  doctor  wished  him 
kept  very  quiet.  He  thought  he  would  recover, 
as  he  had  a  fine  constitution.  I  did  go  once,  how- 
ever, and  when  he  heard  my  voice  his  face  lit  up 
with  a  lovely,  beaming  expression,  full  of  joy  and 
peace.  I  shall  never  forget  It,  and  I  feel  that  no 
photograph  could  ever  depict  that  radiant  glow. 
He   passed  most   peacefully  away  ;    there  was  no 


LAST   YEARS  359 

suffering.    As  the  doctor  said,  '  He  had  an  abundant 
entrance.' " 

The  news  of  Dr.  Matheson's  death  came  as  a 
shock  of  surprise,  and  produced  a  profound  feeling 
of  regret.  It  was  so  sudden  and  so  unexpected, 
and,  so  far  as  age  is  concerned,  he  had  not  long 
passed  the  meridian  of  life.  It  was  known  that  he 
was  more  disinclined  than  ever  to  preach,  but  this 
was  not  put  down  to  any  special  physical  weakness  ; 
and  a  fresh  volume  by  him  having  appeared,  so 
recently  as  the  spring,  gave  everyone  the  hope 
that  he  would  be  spared  for  many  years  to  instruct 
and  to  comfort  the  Church  of  Christ.  Long  and 
appreciative  notices  of  him  appeared  in  almost  every 
newspaper  in  England  and  in  Scotland,  indeed 
throughout  the  British  Empire  and  America. 
Special  references  were  made  to  him  from  almost 
every  pulpit  in  his  native  land  on  the  Sunday  after 
his  death  ;  and,  by  a  unanimous  desire,  his  famous 
hymn  was  sung  on  the  same  day  by  most  congrega- 
tions. The  two  leading  Presbyteries  of  the  Church, 
those  of  Edinburgh  and  Glasgow,  and  the  Royal 
Society  of  Edinburgh,  minuted  special  resolutions 
of  regret  and  sympathy,  copies  of  which  were  sent 
to  his  family.  But  more  significant  than  any  of 
these,  and  a  stronger  testimony  to  his  work  and  to 
his  influence,  were  the  letters  that  his  sister  received 
from  admirers  in  different  parts  of  the  world,  and 
in  particular  from  those,  like  himself,  who  suffered 
from  dire  physical  calamity,  and  whose  life  his 
example  had  inspired  and  whose  suffering  his  faith 


360  LAST   YEARS 

had    mitigated.      Indeed,    under    Providence,    his 

special  gift  to  the  world  may,  in  the  end,  prove  to 

be,  the  encouragement  which  his  noble  life  will  give 

to  those  who,  like  himself,  may  be  subjected  to  a 

life-long  physical  affliction.     Let  me  give  two  such 

letters. 

i  Surrey, 

.  September  2,  1906. 

Dear  Madam, — Will  you  pardon  me,  a  stranger  to 
you,  if  I  seem  irreverently  to  intrude  in  your  unspeakable 
sorrow. 

I  only  desire  to  convey  to  you  a  humble  and  an  affec- 
tionate acknowledgment  of  the  endless  debt  I  owe  to  the 
late  Dr.  Matheson,  whom  having  not  seen  I  love. 

He  who  writes  to  you  is  a  young  clergyman  of  the 
Church  of  England,  and  a  Scotsman.  My  eyes  have  been 
permanently  injured  by  illness  for  many  years  now, — but 
after  long  darkness  they  partially  recovered. 

So  your  dear  brother  has  been  to  me,  by  his  heroic  life, 
a  constant  example  in  my  ministry,  and  in  times  of 
difficulty  I  have  gone  to  his  books  for  light  and  inspira- 
tion. 

I  had  for  some  time  wished  to  write  to  him,  but 
hesitated  to  intrude. 

May  I  now,  and  especially  under  the  circumstances  I 
have  named,  be  forgiven  for  sending  these  simple  words 
of  deep  gratitude  to  you  ? 

If  so,  I  hope  this  letter  will  reach  you. — Yours  most 
sincerely,  M.  A. 

Dear  Miss  Matheson, — It  was  with  feelings  akin 
to  shock  that  I  learned  of  the  sudden  death  of  your 
beloved  brother,  and  I  desire  on  behalf  of  my  wife  and 
myself  to  offer  to  you  and  all  the  mourning  relatives  our 
sincerest  sympathy.  May  you  realise,  in  a  very  special 
degree,  the  comforting  presence  and  consoling  companion- 
ship of  Christ  in  your  great  sorrow. 

I    cannot    tell   you    how   much  your    highly    gifted 


LAST   YEARS  361 

brother  was  to  me.  Like  him,  I  too  lost  my  sight  very 
early  in  life,  but  through  his  magnificent  example  I  was 
induced  to  enter  the  ministry,  in  which  I  have  been 
labouring  for  these  eleven  years.  It  is  somewhere  about 
seventeen  years  ago  since  one  of  my  fellow-students 
introduced  me  to  Dr.  Matheson,  and  well  do  I  remember 
our  first  meeting.  I  have  met  him  more  than  once  since 
then,  and  I  have  corresponded  with  him  frequently.  He 
was  always  kind  and  gracious,  and  supremely  hopeful  and 
inspiring.  It  may  interest  you  to  learn  that  my  wife  had 
just  finished  "  The  Glory  of  the  Morning  "  in  Mouients  on 
the  Mounts  when  her  eye  caught  the  sad  announcement 
of  his  death  in  the  newspaper.  The  eternal  youth  of 
which  he  writes  so  beautifully  in  this  meditation  is  now 
for  him  not  an  inspiring  vision  but  a  glorious  reality. 

He  died  at  Avenell  House,  North  Berwick,  on 
Tuesday,  28th  August  1906,  and  he  was  buried  in 
the  family  vault  in  Glasgow  Necropolis  on  the  fol- 
lowing Saturday,  September  ist.  His  remains 
had  been  previously  brought  to  his  new  house  at 
Belgrave  Crescent,  which,  alas  !  was  only  to  know  its 
owner  in  death.  There  service  was  conducted  in 
the  presence  of  the  family  and  of  those  specially 
invited  to  the  funeral.  On  reaching  Glasgow  a 
large  concourse  was  found  waiting  the  arrival  of 
the  cortes^e. 

How  the  sun  did  shine  on  his  funeral  day !  Its 
rays  poured  with  a  steady  brilliance,  that  made  men 
wonder.  It  was  not  a  day  on  which  one  could  be 
sad — it  was  a  day  of  Hght  and  creator  of  gladsome- 
ness.  Many  may  have  thought  of  this  as  they 
crossed  the  Dean  Bridge,  or  walked  along  one  or 
other  of  the  terraces,  on  their  way  to  the  funeral. 
Joy,  not  sorrow,  the  very  heavens  seemed  to  de- 


362  LAST   YEARS 

clare,  ought  to  be  the  prevailing  note  in  the  service 
and  the  feeling  in  the  heart.  For  the  day  had  a 
message.  It  flashed  the  thought,  that  to  him  who 
had  been  surrounded  with  outward  darkness  all  was 
now  bright ;  that  to  the  miracle  of  the  New  Birth 
which  gives  sight  to  the  eye  of  faith  had  been 
added  the  miracle  of  the  New  State  in  which  we 
**  shall  see  Him  as  He  is."  Nor  did  the  sun  lose 
one  ray  of  its  lustre  all  that  day.  It  followed  the 
cortege  with  its  glad  message  of  hope  to  Matheson's 
own  city,  the  city  in  which  he  was  born  and  bred, 
and  round  which  clustered  many  of  his  fondest 
recollections.  Glasgow  was  proud  of  him  while  he 
was  in  life,  and  it  will  ever  cherish  his  memory  in 
death.  Many  of  its  leading  clergy  and  citizens  met 
and  accompanied  the  bier  to  its  last  resting-place 
in  the  noble  Necropolis.  The  ancient  Cathedral, 
with  a  look  of  perpetual  youth  on  its  venerable 
walls,  spoke  as  they  passed  of  the  "  glorious 
resurrection."  Around  the  open  grave  the  mourners 
stood  in  sad  dejection  ;  and  when  all  was  over,  and 
the  last  words  of  farewell  and  hope  were  spoken, 
they  still  stood  as  if  expecting  something  more — 
they  knew  not  what.  That  "something  more" 
will  be  revealed  to  them,  also,  when  ''  Death  is 
swallowed  up  in  victory." 


INDEX 


Abbotsford  Place,  39,  Glasgow,  2, 

8,15. 
Abbott,  Dr.  Lyman,  270. 
Academy,  Glasgow,  15. 
Addresses— at  Edinburgh  Ninety 

Burns  Club,  8  ;  at  Presbyterian 

Council,   Belfast,  206,  209  ;   at 

St.  Bernard's,  Edinburgh,  255  ; 

to  Theological  Students,  334. 
Agnosticism,  articles  on,  205. 
Aids   to   the    Study  of   German 

Theology,   133,    135,    138,   I47, 

202. 
Alison,  Rev.  Dr.  John,  139. 
Apologetics,  152,  154. 
Apostle  Paul,  the,  268,  269. 
Appointment  to  Innellan,  87. 
Argyll,  Duke  of,  214. 
Assistants,  Dr.  Matheson's,  326. 
Augustine,  171. 
Autobiography       of       "  Jupiter " 

Carlyle,  26. 
Avenell   House,  North   Berwick, 

361. 

Baird  Lecture,  162. 

Balmoral,  215. 

Bar,  the,  23. 

Barnett,  Rev.  T.  R.,  235. 

Basis  of  Religious  Belief,  160. 

Baur,  154. 


Belfast,       meeting       of       Pan- 
Presbyterian  Council  at,  206. 

Belgrave  Crescent,  288,  354. 

Bell,  Mr.  M'Kenzie,  310. 

Bell,  Mr.,  Glasgow  Academy,  17. 

Bible  Class  at  St.  Bernard's,  255. 

Bible  Definition  of  Religion,  285. 

Biblical  World,  263. 

Blackie,  Professor,  4. 

Blackwood  &  Sons,  211,  281. 

Blair,  Rev.  Dr.,  47. 

Bleek,  134. 

"Blind  Girl's   Retrospect,   The," 
64. 

Boyd,  A.  K.  H.,  26,  27. 

Braille  system,  the,  293,  294. 

British  and  Foreign  Evangelical 
Review,  164. 

British  Quarterly  Magazine,  150. 

British  Weekly,  164,  317. 

Brooke,  Stopford,  iii. 

Brown,  Rev.  Mr.,  26. 

Brown,     Wm.,     Session     Clerk, 
Sandyford,  91. 

Bruce,  Professor,  164,  333. 

Bryan,    Mr.   A.   V.,   letter   from, 

364- 
Buchanan,  Professor  Robert,  33, 

34,  44- 
Buchanan,  Robert,  18,  35. 

Buchanan's  School,  Glasgow,  14. 


363 


364 


INDEX 


Burns  Club,  Edinburgh  Ninety, 

347- 
Bust  presented  by  Queen  Victoria, 

217 
Butler,  153. 
Byron,  17,  53,  64. 

Caesar,  Rev.  Dr.,  261. 
Caird,  Edward,  35,  46,  308. 
Caird,   Principal,  44,   45,  46,  48, 

74,  76,  100,  loi,  120,  315. 
Calderwood,  Professor,  207. 
Call  to  London,  148. 
Cameron,  Rev.  Dr.,  of  Dunoon, 

122. 
Cameron,  John,  35. 
Campbell,  Miss  Mally,  26. 
Campbell,  Principal,  26. 
Can  the  Old  Faith  Live  with  the 

New,  205,  210,  214. 
Carlile,  Mr.  James,  17. 
Carlton  Place  School,  14. 
Carlyle,  "  Jupiter,"  26. 
Carlyle,  Thomas,  46,  229. 
Carmichael,  Gershom,  35. 
Carnegie,  Mr.,  30. 
Carruthers,    Rev.    Thomas,     33, 

Cassell  &  Co.,  167,  281. 
Catholic  Presbyteria?!,  The,  1 50. 
Catholicity  of  spirit,  2,  129,  148, 

174,  186. 
Chalmers,  Thomas,  229,  316. 
Charteris,  Professor,  74,  138,  147. 
Christian  World,  263. 
Christianity,  140,  147,  148. 
Church,  Dean,  170. 
Church  elections,  89,  90. 
Clark,  Sir  Andrew,  352. 
Clark's  "Biblical  Cabinet,"  133. 
Clifton  Literary  Society,  53. 
Clyde,  Firth  of,  92. 


Coleridge,  46. 

Confucianism,  279. 

Contemporaries  at  College,  47. 

Co7ite7tiporary  Review,  143,  145. 

Corelli,  Marie,  9. 

Cowan,  Professor,  Aberdeen,  337. 

Cox,  Samuel,  145. 

Craigmore,  349. 

Crathie  Parish  Church,  215. 

Criticism,  Higher,  309. 

Crown    Court    Church,    London, 

148. 
Cumming,  Rev.  Dr.,  148. 
Cunningham,  Rev.  James,  66. 
Currie,  Mr.,  Glasgow   Academy, 

17. 
Currie,  Dr.,  224. 
Cyril     Thornton,     by      Captain 

Hamilton,  27,  43. 

Darwin,  203,  204,  212. 

D.D.  degree,  146. 

De  Wette,  134. 

Deism,  English,  153. 

Delitzsch,  134. 

Devotion   based    on    conviction, 

172,  173. 
Devotional  Works,  167,  168. 
Dickson,  Professor,  44. 
Disruption,  the,  i. 
Distinctive  Messages  of  the  Old 

Religions,  279. 
Donald,    Rev.  Dr.,  of  Keithhall, 

95- 
Dorner,  134. 

Dornoch,  3. 

Drummond,    Prof.    Henry,    211, 

310. 
Drummond,  Rev.  J.  J.,  B.D.,  247, 

321. 
Dublin,  Archbishop  of,  22. 
Dykes,  Dr.  190. 


INDEX 


365 


Ecce  Ho7no^  332. 
Edgar,  James,  26. 
Edinburgh  University,  146. 
English      Literature      Chair    at 

Glasgow  University,  34. 
Errol,  315. 

Essays,  College,  36,  37,  38,  39. 
Evolution,  205,  206,  211,  309. 
Evvald,  134. 
Exaniiner^  The,  167. 
Expositor,    The,    145,    149,   268, 

285,  343- 
Expository  addresses,  104. 
Expository  Titnes,  263. 
Extempore  preaching,  116. 
Extract    from    first     sermon     at 

Sandyford,  82. 

Farewell  addresses — to  Innellan, 
227  ;  St.  Bernard's,  325. 

Father  of  Dr.  Matheson,  2. 

Ferguson,  Rev.  Martin  Peter, 
94. 

Fichte,  135. 

Finlay,  Mr.,  14. 

Fleming,  Professor  William,  44. 

Flint,  Professor,  162,  213. 

Francis  de  Sales,  171. 

Eraser,  Rev.  James,  60. 

German     Theology,     133,      136, 

138. 

Giesler,  134. 

GifFord  Lectureship,  337. 

Glasgow  University,  24,  27,  35. 

Glassford  Street,  5,  6. 

Gloag,  Rev.  Dr.,  7,  125,  139, 

Good  IVoj'ds,  263. 

Gordon,  Rev.  Dr.  D.  M.,  47,  60. 

Gordon,  Rev.  James,  38. 

Gordon,  Sir  Robert,  3. 

Gow,  Mr.,  17. 


Graduation  in  Arts,  44. 
Grant,  Rev.  Dr.  C.  M.,  60. 
Growth  of  the  Spirit  of  Christi- 
anity, 140,  147,  148,  202. 
Guthrie,  Dr.,  in. 

Hamilton,  Captain,  27. 

Hamilton,  Sir  William,  27,  133. 

Hastie,  Professor,  136. 

Hausrath,  134. 

Hay,  Dr.  G.  P.,  208. 

Hay,  Professor  Matthew,  336. 

Hegel,  Influence  of,  45,  46,  123, 

135,  140,  308. 
Hengstenberg,  134. 
Herbert,  George,  171. 
Highland  ancestry,  3. 
Hill,  Professor,  44. 
Hill,  Principal,  44. 
Historical    Christ    of    St.     Paul, 

12. 
History    of    German    Theology, 

136. 
Histrionic  faculty,  55. 
Hodder  &  Stoughton,  281. 
Hodge,  Dr.,  206. 
Home  life,  19. 

Homiletic  Magazine,  263,  264. 
Home,  Rev.  Robert,  94. 
Hotson,  Mr.  James,  16,  53. 
Hutcheson,  Miss,  14. 
Hutcheson,  Professor,  26,  35. 
Huxley,  204. 
Hymn,  Matheson's,  181,  188,  191, 

192,  194. 
Hymns,  criticism  of,  185. 

Immortality,  157,  160. 
Individuahsm,  142. 
Induction  to  St.  Bernard's,  Edin- 
burgh, 208. 


366 


INDEX 


Inglis,  Lord,  53,  147. 
Innellan,  56,  87,  220. 
Introduction  at  Innellan,  100. 

Jackson,  Professor,  44. 

Jamieson,  Dr.,  Glasgow,  138. 

Jardine,  Professor,  33. 

Job,  Book  of,  14. 

Job,  sermon  on  the  patience  of, 

217. 
Johnston,  Dr.  Wm.,  of  Belfast,  207. 

Kant,  134,  135,  153. 
Keble,  171. 
Keil,  134. 
Keim,  134. 
Kelvin,  Lord,  204. 
Kelvinhaugh,  85. 
Kent  Road,  17. 
Knox,  John,  229. 

Labrador  House,  Innellan,  287. 
Lady  Ecclesia^  The,  281,  283. 
Lady  Yester's  Church,  Edinburgh, 

315- 
Landmarks    of  New   Testament 

Morality,  266. 
Lang,   Rev.    Marshall    B.,    B.D., 

244,  258. 
Laokoon  of  Lessing,  204. 
Largs,  349. 

Leaves  for  Qiciet  Hours,  168,  172. 
Lee,  Professor,  Glasgow,  206. 
Leechman,  Professor,  26. 
Leeds,    sermon     in     Brunswick 

Chapel,  339. 
Leigh,  H.  S.,  115. 
Leishman,  Rev.  Dr.,  Govan,  94. 
Leisure  Hours  i7t   Toiv7i,  A.  K. 

H.  Boyd,  27. 
Lessing,  Life  of,  by  Mr.  James 

Sime,  137. 


Letters  of  gratitude,  179, 191,  192, 

194. 
Lichtenberger,  125. 
Liddon,  Canon,  209. 
Life  and  Work,  188. 
Lifeboat  Saturday  Fund  Service, 

355- 
Lisco,  134. 
Lister,  204. 
Lockhart,  26. 
"  Logic  Bob,"  33. 
London  Quaj'terly  Review,  343. 
Lytton,  Bulwer,  33. 

M'Burney,  Dr.,  17. 
M'Culloch,  Rev.  Dr.,  91. 
Macdonald,  Rev.  Finlay,  60. 
Macduff,  Dr.,  of  Sandyford,  56, 

74. 
Macduff,  Miss,  Jj,  80. 
M'Farlane,  Rev.  Mr.,  261. 
MacGregor,  Rev.  Dr.,  214. 
Mackenzie,  Dr.,  9. 
Macleod,    Norman,    74,    84,   99, 

III,  215. 
Macmillan,  Rev.  Dr.,  memories, 

109,  143. 
Macmillan,  Rev.  Dr.  Hugh,  138, 

147. 
M'Murtrie,  Rev.  Dr.,  261. 
Magazine  articles,  143,  149,  150. 
Manville,  F.  D.,  280. 
Martin,  Rev.  Mr.,  261. 
Matheson,  Miss,  7,  21,  80,  289, 

303,  306,  337,  358. 
Matheson,  Miss  Ellen,  289,  358. 
Matheson,  Mrs.,  7. 
Matheson,  Mr.  John,  5,  y^)- 
Matheson,  Mr.  John,  Barrhead,  6. 
Matheson,  Sir  Donald,  6. 
Melville,  Andrew,  24. 
Memory,  305,  307. 


INDEX 


367 


Method  in  work,  151. 
"  Modern  English  Novel,"  347. 
Modernity,  note  of,  169. 
Moments  on  the  Mounts  167. 
Momerie,  Professor,  in. 
Moncreiff,  Lord,  53. 
Monteath,  Mrs.,  289. 
Miiller,  Julius,  134. 
Miiller,  Max,  204. 
Murphy,  Mr.  Joseph,  211. 
Murtle  Lecture,  335. 
Music,  love  of,  52. 
My  Aspirations^  166. 

Natural  Elements  of  Revealed 
Theology^  161,  202,  279. 

Natural  Law  in  the  Spiritual 
Worlds  211. 

Natural  Religion,  153. 

Neander,  134. 

Newman,  Cardinal,  190. 

Nichol,  Professor,  34. 

Nicol,  Professor,  335,  337. 

Nicoll,  Dr.  Robertson,  145,  207. 

Nisbet,  James,  &  Co.,  281. 

North  Berwick,  349. 

Paley,  153. 

Pan  -  Presbyterian      Council      at 

Belfast,  206. 
Parker,  Dr.  Joseph,  316. 
Parkhurst,  Rev.  Charles,  238. 
Pascal,  171. 
Pasteur,  204. 
Pastoral    Work,    in,    250,    260, 

318. 

Paton,  Dr.,  of  St.  David's,  Glas- 
gow, 5. 

Patronage,  88. 

Peace,  Dr.,  190. 

Perfection  through  suffering, 
236. 


Peter^s  Letters  to  his  Kinsfolk^ 

Lockhart,  26. 
Poems— "Zillah,"   60-64;    "The 

Blind    Girl's    Retrospect,"  64- 

68. 
Poetry,' love  of,  55. 
Porteous,  Rev.  William,  94. 
Prayers,  106. 
Preaching,  231,  249. 
Prophets  of  the  Christia7t  Faith^ 

by  Dr.  Lyman  Abbott,  270. 
Psalmist  and  the  Scientist,  The^ 

263,  266. 
Psalms,  Book  of,  104. 
Pulsford,     Rev.     Dr.,      74,     75, 

120. 

Queen  Victoria,  215. 
Quiver,  The,  263. 

Raeburn,  Sir  Henry,  289. 
Ramsay,      Professor     Wm.,     28, 

30- 
Ramshorn  Church,  5. 
Rationalism,  German,  an    exotic 

plant,  136. 
Reconciliation    of    opposites,    i, 

129,  187,  213,  236,  280. 
Rectorial  election,  54. 
Reid,    Mr.,    Glasgow    Academy, 

17. 
Reid,  Thomas,  35. 
Reminiscences,  Mr.  Wm.  Smith's, 

292,  294,  298,  299,  301. 
Renan,  331. 
Representative  Men  of  the  Bible, 

132,  268,  343. 
Resignation,     letters      of,     319, 

323. 
Restoration — church  at  Innellan, 

112  ;  St.  Bernard's,  259. 
Rests  by  the  River,  160,  162. 


868 


INDEX 


Revelation,  i6o,  162. 

Ripon,     Bishop     of,      215,     216, 

280. 
Ritchie,  James,  6. 
Robertson,  Principal,  229. 
Robertson  of  Brighton,  24,  108. 
Robertson,  Rev.  Mr.,  261. 
Ronald,  John,  18. 
Row,  56,  57. 

Sacred  Songs^  60,  182,  186. 

Saint  Andrew^  341. 

St.  Bernard's  Crescent,  19,  Edin- 
burgh, 287. 

St.  Giles'  Lectures,  279. 

St.  Madoes,  5. 

St.  Vincent  Crescent,  Glasgow,  8, 
15,  16,75. 

Sala,  G.  A.,  115. 

Sandyford  Church,  5. 

Sceptre  7uitJiout  a  Swordy  341. 

S  chaff,  133,  206. 

Schenkel,  331. 

Schleiermacher,  135,  161. 

School  honours,  16. 

Scientific  interests,  153,  203. 

"  Scientific  Lights  on  Religious 
Problems,"  343. 

Scott,  Sir  Walter,  25,  29,  229. 

Scottish  Review,  The,  204,  206. 

Scottish  University  System,  28. 

Searchings  in  the  Sile?ice,  167. 

Seeley,  331,  332. 

Selections  from  devotional  writ- 
ings, 176,  178. 

Sermons — Dr.  Matheson's  first, 
49;  last,  355. 

Sermon  writing,  71. 

Sidelights  from  Patmos,  285. 

Sime,  Dr.  David,  68,  69,  137,  151, 
166,  199,  203,  283. 

Sime,  Mr.  James,  137,  204. 


Simson,  Professor,  26. 

Skelmorlie,  56,  349. 

Smith,  Adam,  35. 

Smith,  Rev.  Sydney,  232. 

Smith,  Mr.  William,  290. 

Socratic  Dialogue  Essay,  36. 

Somerville,  Rev.  Dr.,  of  Black- 
friars,  Glasgow,  49,  59. 

Songs,  54. 

Speeches  at  Innellan,  96,  98, 
201. 

Spencer,  Herbert,  153,  203. 

Spiritual  Developmefit  of  St. 
Paul,  267-279,  294. 

Stalker,  Dr.,  208. 

Stevenson,  Mr.  William,  113, 
200. 

Stewart,  Professor,  34,  47. 

Stirling,  Hutchison,  134. 

Story,  Principal,  339. 

Strauss,  135,  154. 

Strong,  Rev.  Dr.,  50. 

Studies  of  the  Portrait  of  Christ , 
268,  327,  334,  345. 

Sunday  at  Innellan,  105. 

Su7iday  School  Tiines,  263. 

Sunday  Magazine,  182. 

Tennyson,  Lord,  214,  352. 

Teviot  Street,  86. 

Theological     Translation      Fund 

Library,  134. 
Tholuck,  134. 

Thomson,  Rev.  Robert,  47. 
Times  of  Retirement,  168,  341. 
Travel,  ']'}>' 
Tributes  and  opinions,  no,  in, 

199,  200,  207. 
Trinity  Church,  Glasgow,  71. 
Tulloch,  Principal,  in,  215. 
Tyndall,  204. 
Typewriter,  use  of,  296,  297. 


INDEX 


369 


University  of  Glasgo%v^  Old  and 

New^  by  Professor  Stewart,  34. 
Unpublished  writings,  131. 

Voices  of  the  Spirit^  167,  266. 

Waddell,   Rev.  Dr.   Hately,  307, 

350,  353- 
Wakefield,  Bishop  of,  iii. 
Watt,  Dr.  J.  B.,  of  Ayr,  114. 


Weir,  Prof.  Duncan,  44. 
Whyte,  Rev.  Dr.  Alexander,  339. 
Wilkie,  Sir  David,  287. 
Wilson,  Bailie,  5. 
Wilson  &  Matheson,  5. 
Wilson,  Mr.  Wm.,  5. 
Woodside  Terrace,  75. 
Woine?i  of  the  Bible,  132. 
Words     by    the     Wayside,     167, 
285. 


24 


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Morrison  &  Gibb  Limited 

Edinburgh 


/-^ 


^: 


■^c^f4m 


■  <-  .< '  ''if 


